Nourish Northumberland Tender Information
Nourish Northumberland – Tender Information
Nourish Northumberland via Adapt (NE) would like to offer an opportunity to further develop and work to create a sustainable food solution for Northumberland. A contract value of £25,000 has been attributed to the delivery of this work.
Nourish Northumberland: Building a Northumberland Wide Food Partnership
Food is vital to life and, for one in seven, it is their source of livelihood. No decisions have such a direct impact on our lives and wellbeing as the choices we make about what we eat. We have a moral as well as practical responsibility to consider the role and impact of the food solution across Northumberland. Food activities that address and alleviate health inequalities are of utmost importance and the collective effort to produce a sustainable food solution with dignity, choice and inclusivity is paramount.
In Northumberland, we want a future that delivers safe, healthy and affordable food solutions for our communities, regardless of where they live or how much they earn, built upon resilient and sustainable solutions.
Nourish Northumberland aims to break the cycle of dependency in relation to food assistance, eliminate food insecurity, encourage positive behaviour change around food and promote compassion, dignity and choice through a variety of offers and approaches, not limited to nutrition but including physical health, mental health, social cohesion, wellbeing and more.
By putting the power in the hands of the community working together at a local level, we can focus on the inclusive elements of food provision, move away from the need for emergency food and develop a transformative approach to food solutions. We can also shift food culture to create a system that is a thriving contributor to our Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) economies, to provide jobs and opportunities and reduce our environmental impact whilst supporting innovative providers and partners across the county to expand, diversify and thrive.
Our Strategy
Nourish Northumberland is a Northumberland wide Food Partnership that is open to all that aims to support and enable:
- Choices for everyone regardless of where they live or how much they earn (promoting a sense of control and a recognition of trust in communities to make their own decisions, that people are respected as individuals regardless of their past/present circumstances)
- Contribution in all areas, from developing food solutions, tending plots and community orchards, sharing great ideas, mobilising and delivering activities, to volunteering and jobs (sense of involvement, control, self-worth, value, trust, respect, inequality)
- Ordinary Places where people can connect to their local communities and to local outdoor spaces (social, wellbeing, mental health benefits and locally asset based, best use of our land and spaces)
Underpinning every aim of Nourish Northumberland is the ethos that every member of the community matters. Food is a universal necessity for survival, it is also the backbone of social interaction and unites us all.
Nourish Northumberland seeks to support people to feel a sense of control over their food choices by breaking down financial barriers whilst reducing our environmental impact.
Nourish Northumberland will:
- Give a sense of control to communities
- Give an opportunity to take part in the nurturing and production of locally grown food
- Provide support to communities to ensure that everyone is nourished and supported
- Give communities control to allow them to be at the heart of decision making at a local level
- Enable inclusion in activities, decisions, communities
- Provide real solutions to reduce environmental impact
Working in partnership at a local level and adopting a collaborative approach to food provision enables Nourish Northumberland to unite both food initiatives and food providers, building capacity and capability whilst creating a shift in food culture and dependency, providing networking, best practice and innovative approaches, inspiring and supporting the local community to develop locally based solutions and sustainability. Nourish Northumberland will act as a catalyst and advocate for food solutions across Northumberland.
Roles of Nourish Northumberland
- Put the universal right to food at the centre of a transformative food approach for Northumberland
- Act as a catalyst to connect and collaborate, sharing best practice and knowledge across communities within Northumberland at a local and county level
- Develop strong and productive relationships and champion Nourish Northumberland
- Inspire and enable local food culture to allow communities to have access to buy, grow, produce and cook affordable, healthy and sustainable food
- Allocate resources to support and enable the delivery of Nourish Northumberland partnership within each locality
- Ensure a sustainable and accessible food pathway between Northumberland Communities Together, the VCS and local communities
- Connect with Community Hubs
- Work to reduce food waste and food packaging
- Ensure our food environment promotes public health
The Opportunity
We are looking for support to be that touch point in local communities over an 18 month period – to connect with all food providers, distributors and retailers, developing in depth relationships to achieve the aims and goals of Nourish Northumberland for and with local communities.
This support can be in the form of a collective or individual basis, with the expectation that at least one day per week would be spent in each locality, working closely with each of the Nourish Northumberland Leads to feed back to the Steering Group and Nourish Northumberland Board.
Specific targets will include the delivery of local community engagement and educational events, connection and collaboration with wider VCSE, Northumberland Communities Together and private sector partners, the support and creation of innovative enterprise and solutions with a focus on environmental impacts and the reduction in Northumberland’s carbon footprint, including but not limited to food waste, plastics recycling, distribution and repurposing and reductions in landfill; sustainability and funding opportunities.
We would welcome responses to be submitted before 31 January 2022 with interviews to be held 18 February 2022, with a start date as close to 1 April 2022 as possible.
Nourish Northumberland Leads are located in Berwick (Berwick Upon Tweed Community Development Trust), Hexham (Adapt North East), Morpeth (Northumberland Community Enterprises Ltd) and Blyth (CVA Blyth Valley/SCENE), working to cover all areas with locally based solutions. Locally based workspace via partner agencies and community venues will be available but will not be a permanent base due to the need to spend time within various locations and communities.
All costs are to be included within the £25,000.
Applications are to be submitted to Adapt (NE). For more information please contact Liz Prudhoe: lizp@adapt-tynedale.org.uk or call 01434 600599.
