News / Bristol Local Food Fund
Helping vulnerable communities fight food insecurity
The Bristol Local Food Fund is a new initiative that will help to fight food insecurity in some of Bristol’s most disadvantaged communities.
It aims to give “accessible, flexible funding” to community food projects across the city, hoping to build on the response to the pandemic in tackling a problem that affects more than 10,000 households.
Organisers want to eventually set up longer-term funding streams to provide a constant source of support “so that everyone can access good quality, culturally appropriate, affordable food”.
is needed now More than ever
The grant-making will be guided by a ‘citizens panel’ comprising people with real-life experience of food insecurity, with this ‘participatory grant-making’ hoping to ensure the funding truly serves local communities.
A crowdfunding campaign aims to raise £100,000 by the end of November, with dozens of independent food and drink businesses offering rewards, including Hart’s Bakery, Squeezed and Wiper & True.
More than £15,000 was committed to the campaign in advance of its launch, including a £10,000 donation from law firm Burges Salmon.
The project was started in July 2020 during the first lockdown by Mike Lloyd-Jones, who has worked and volunteered in Bristol’s third sector for more than a decade.
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Burges Salmon head of community engagement, Jamie Cameron, said: “We are excited to support the Bristol Local Food Fund’s new innovative and collaborative approach, working with partners all across the city and directly with communities and people affected by food insecurity.
“Our people raised £10,000, which we hope will help launch the Bristol Local Food Fund’s fundraising campaign to ensure that everyone has access to healthy affordable food.
Feeding Bristol director Ped Asgarian said that he is proud to be a supporter and partner of the Bristol Local Food Fund.
He said: “As a city, we have the opportunity to raise funds that can positively impact those citizens that are hit hardest by the food inequality we have in the city.
“Targeted at supporting projects working with the most disadvantaged communities, the Bristol Local Food Fund will provide easy-to-access funding at a time when we are seeing the disparity in wealth widen quicker than ever before with rising fuel and food costs, the cutting of Universal Credit and the aftermath of the pandemic.”
To donate to the Bristol Local Food Fund crowdfunder, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/BLFF
Main photo: Kathryn Jeffs
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