Councillor strives for end to food poverty
A councillor has detailed West Lothian’s recent efforts at achieving food justice.
Whitburn and Blackburn councillor, Kirsteen Sullivan, has been supporting the Co-op’s Food Justice campaign for the past year .
And she says West Lothian has “made significant progress on our journey towards a hunger-free county.”
As the lead behind the campaign in West Lothian, Councillor Sullivan says the first step was to understand the extent of the challenge within the communities and the current levels of food provision.
West Lothian Council and NHS Lothian produced their first Local Child Poverty Action Plan .
And since then partners are looking to work together to develop a plan to tackle food insecurity and create community food hubs.
The Food with Dignity conference was held on March 12 and brought together members of public bodies and third sector organisations.
At the event they shared their local experiences of food insecurity and food poverty as well as local projects to address the issue.
At the conference, Councillor Sullivan was able to confirm that alongside other funding to support the delivery of the AntiPoverty Strategy, West Lothian Council had specifically set aside £150,000 to help towards reducing food insecurity.
The funding will be used for supporting a two year time-limited project.
This will establish and develop a West Lothian Food Network.
This will help in increasing funding to host The Big Lunch in local communities.
It will also fund the provision of starter packs to those accessing the Scottish Welfare Fund.
Councillor Sullivan explained: “Whilst funding is vital in helping deliver much of the work required, equally important is having the commitment and support from community partners.
“Without the solid foundation of relationships and partnership working already in place, I do not believe progress would have been possible at the same pace.
“Having the food network co-ordinator in place just a few weeks after lockdown helped deliver a co-ordinated response to the unprecedented challenges faced by our local communities.
“It also facilitated the development of a local food hub.
“This helped to co-ordinate the donation of foodstuffs as well as to act as a central collection point for local organisations involved in delivering food packages, stocking community fridges and producing meals for residents in our towns and villages who struggled to access food.”
She continued: “We have lived through the most challenging of times, perhaps the biggest health crisis many of us will see in our lifetime.
“However, despite the challenges, we have discovered a resilience and agility to respond to an ever evolving, complex situation and a renewed commitment to seek longer term solutions to eliminate hunger in our communities.
“The measures outlined above in conjunction with the development of a food action plan, and alignment with both the existing Anti- Poverty Strategy and emerging Food Growing Strategy, will ensure a consistent and holistic approach is adopted with a clear pathway to deliver meaningful change, change that means everyone who needs it has access to food.”