Lancaster District Food Justice Partnership’s new development worker Joel Stewart talks about his role, the work the charity does, and the concept of Food Ladders…
Hello! I’m Joel and I recently started my role at Lancaster District Food Justice Partnership (LDFJP) as the new development worker.
LDFJP forms part of North Lancashire’s FoodFutures network, but it is also now an independent charity in its own right, governed by a board of trustees.
Our aim is to tackle food poverty and diet-related ill health, by ensuring everyone has access to affordable and healthy food.
My main job is to support the 13 food clubs in the district, which do the brilliant work of redistributing surplus supermarket food that would otherwise go to landfill.
For a small weekly fee, food club members can prevent this perfectly good produce from going to waste, while also saving significantly on their food shopping.
LDFJP’s work is based on a ‘Food Ladders’ approach.
Rung one is providing a robust safety net of crisis support via the district’s two food banks, Morecambe Bay Foodbank and The Olive Branch.
Rung two is a system of support to build community capacity and resilience in the local food system. This system includes the food clubs, community cafes, community meals, holidays clubs and voucher schemes that help keep people afloat.
Rung three is support for a sustainable future, where our communities self-organise to develop their own food projects and meet their own needs.
We envisage this final rung taking shape in the form of ‘Food Circles’ around the district, where everyone in the community has access to shared spaces to compost, grow food, cook and eat together and shop at a food club.
The rails of this ladder are the authorities and organisations supporting the climb.
I was drawn to this role having worked in food clubs through the Citizens Advice network, which has given me an insight into the scale of the cost of living crisis in this country. Currently, around 14 million people in the UK are struggling against food insecurity, and there are few signs things will get any easier without the fantastic community-led action we are seeing in the Lancaster district.
I’m excited to support the vital ongoing work of our food clubs and welcome anyone to get in touch if they’d like to get involved, or become a trustee.
Visit https://foodfutures.org.uk/about-us/food-justice-partnership/ for more information.
