Facilitator Joel Brook 718001 joelbrook1@btinternet.com

 

 

FOOD GROUP – TRANSITION HASTINGS

 

 

Minutes of meeting

 

 

Date: 6^th August, 2008-08-07

 

Present:  Pauline, Agatha, Carol, Lawrence, Joel and Thea.  Apologies - Jean and Rachel

 

Announcement of upcoming events:  Roberto Perez on the Cuban experience in food production/home and community growing.  Go to the Brighton Permaculture Trust website for details.  The date is 20^th September.  The film is called The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil. Doors open 6:30pm and film is shown at 7:00pm.  There will be a talk with Roberto Perez at 8:30.  The venue is at Sallis Benny Theatre, Brighton.

 

Sea food and Wine festival.   (I did not get the date)

 

Bohemia Village Fair from 7^th September

 

28^th August an introductory talk about food co-ops upstairs at the Crowhurst Farm shop.

 

Food prices program on the TV on Mondays at 9:00am and repeated at 9:30pm

 

Transition Town Hastings picnic on August 23^rd

 

Next Transition Town meeting will be on 8^th September at Friend’s Meeting House

 

Pauline discussed her findings in the Food Guide project she has been researching and compiling over the last several months.  She asked members of the group to give her any feedback or comments or additional information to what she had included.

 

A big question for Pauline was “How deep to go” in collecting information as there are so many issues that affect food.  The guide is about local food.  If members feel we need to put more information into the guide then this would be open to discussion.

 

One of the topics that Pauline researched is what is produced in this area.  She complied a list and she raised important points about why it is useful to buy local food e.g. the political issue about intensive farming.

 

Where to buy local food:  this section of the guide is broken into sections including:

 

• Box scheme
• Farmers markets
• Farm shops
• Pick your own

 

Pauline explored five of the Farm shops in the area as a way to get some idea about what is being sold and how the food is being cultivated.  She listed these farms and asked that if anyone wanted to suggest any others to be added to the list to do so.  Joel suggested including Wickham Manor Farm as a farm that produces organic meat.

 

Thea said that she would like to have a copy of the guide so that she could read it through.  Pauline will e-mail a copy to each of us to read and make comment.

 

Pauline said that she went to each of the Farmer’s markets and gathered information about who were selling, what they were selling and the prices of their produce.

 

Pauline also visited local independent shops.  One point that was raised by independent shops is that England does not grow enough to feed its population and, therefore, they have to buy food from places like Holland when we do not have local food available.  Generally, the independent shops try to buy local when they can.

 

When Pauline visited the local butchers she mostly found the shop owners to be helpful and informative.  Most get their meat locally.  However, there were two who were not helpful and were quite suspicious about what she was doing.

 

The Food group had a discussion about whether we should include the unwilling shop owners in the guide or should she simply put something general in this section.  Joel raised the point about the importance of supporting local shops.

 

Pauline also did price comparisons:  The Farmer’s Market came out well when compared with Trinity, Local green grocers and Tescos.

 

Pauline announced that there is a food prices program on the TV on Mondays at 9:00am and repeated at 9:30pm

 

Thea asked where the guide is going to be distributed to.  Pauline said through the Food group and possibly in the local paper.  Joel suggested including it in the veggie boxes at Trinity.

 

Another place to distribute them would be at the Sea food and Wine festival.  Thea will have a SLOW FOOD table there and we could have some guides on the table or have a couple for people to read at the table.

 

Carol said that when she and Lawrence had a Transition Town table at St. Leonard’s festival; they had a very positive response from the public.  They had the Transition Town book on the table for people to thumb through and this worked well.

 

Lawrence suggested doing the same at the Bohemia Village Fair.

 

The Food group had a discussion about how to pay for the cost of printing the guide.  Pauline wondered if we should charge for it.  Thea said that we need to see what funds are available to subsidise the cost if we do charge for it.  It was agreed that it is important to get it out.

 

 

Joel suggested that Pauline talk to Marissa who works with Sustain before publishing the guide.

 

Part of Thea’s job is to research local food and she is part of a country wide project to support social enterprises to grow food.  There are 6 organisations working on this project, Sustain being one of them and another being Soil Association.

 

Marissa is supporting food co-ops to start up.  Joel suggested that maybe Thea and Marissa could do a joint presentation on 28^th August when Marisa is giving an introductory talk about food co-ops upstairs at the Crowhurst Farm shop.  Maybe Thea could talk about the mapping there.

 

Joel also suggested that maybe the guide could include something about community supported agricultural projects in the area and food co-ops.

 

Joel announced that the Permaculture Group are setting up to train people around skills to learn how to produce their own food.

 

He also suggested that the guide have an action section and include contact numbers such as Transition Town Hasting.

 

We returned to the issue of printing the guides and Pauline suggested paying for the cost of printing initially and be reimbursed later when we can get some funding.

 

Pauline will speak to Steve Porter tomorrow to ask for some funding for the printing.

 

Thea raised the idea of suggesting that when Transition Town Hastings has its picnic on August 23^rd that people be encouraged to bring a dish to share.

 

Short discussion about fundraising.  Agatha has received a pack from Awards For All.  There was not time to discuss in detail what we want to fund for.  Joel has some good ideas.  Agatha suggested that once we have a clear idea of what projects we need funding for to then get together and think about the key points we want to put over in the application.  Agatha is prepared to do the application but will need help in the thinking process of what we want to fund, who we want to benefit from the funding and who will be responsible for bookkeeping, purchasing, leading etc.

 

Joel will contact the group members about the next Food Group meeting.