Food For Life Get Together

The Soil Association are coming to the end of their 4 year Food For Life Get Together project and to tie things up they have held a meeting in each of the 4 UK nations for networking, workshops and discussion amongst some of those organisations taking part. Belville Community Garden hosted the Scottish meeting, providing space for workshops, tour of the garden and a delicious vegan lunch provided by chef Taylor and his assistant Aiden.

The Soil Association in collaboration with Nourish Scotland gave us a presentation on a policy campaign they worked on which has been passed by Scottish government, ‘The Good Food Nation Act’. (https://www.nourishscotland.org/campaigns/good-food-nation-bill/). “The Bill enshrines in law the Scottish Government’s commitment to Scotland being a Good Food Nation, where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day.” (https://www.gov.scot/news/good-food-nation-bill-passed/). As part of this, many councils are becoming ‘Sustainable Food Places’ committing to best practice on all aspects of healthy and sustainable food (https://www.soilassociation.org/causes-campaigns/better-food-for-all/sustainable-food-places). We hope to work with Nourish Scotland on developing a way forward for Inverclyde to join this network.

It was great to meet so many organisations who are involved with food growing and sharing and we had some really productive workshops on community involvement and influencing policy makers. I think Belville did Inverclyde, and Scotland proud with their welcome and hospitality and the visitors got to see the garden and the stunning views at their best!