DCFA Feb-Mar 2011 Newsletter

8/7/2019 DCFA Feb-Mar 2011 Newsletter

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The Devon & Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA) is aPrivate Company Limited by Guarantee.

Registered Company Number: 07419679. Registered Charity Number: Pending

Members of :

NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations)

PTSC (The Plymouth Third Sector Consortium),

and The Small Charities Coalition.

Our Funder:

...And Voluntary Donations.

The Devon & Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA)

NEWSLETTER

February - March 2011 Spare Food is Share Food!

7 Whimple Street, Plymouth, Devon PL1 2DH Mobile: 07745819828 (text only ) Email: [email protected] Website:http://dcfa.webs.com

FOREWORD BY THE CHAIR

Dear Friends and Supporters,

May 2010... a dream. February 2011... a reality!

All the talking, the planning and frustrations have bornefruit, as we started trading on Wednesday, 23

rdFebruary

2011, albeit in a modest way to begin with! We’ve come

this far with patience and determination and it would be a

pity if all that groundwork became undone by us going too

fast! We have had to restrain our eagerness as we needed

to learn walk before we could run. Yes, we did fall over a

couple of times, but we picked ourselves up, brushed

ourselves down and carried on.

My fellow Trustees have been working so very hard behind

the scenes and are to be applauded for their dedication.

And all our necessary registration papers, insurance

documentation, etc., is now in place...well, almost!

We are so very grateful to the small volunteer team of

students from the Plymouth City College who helped us at

the Devonport Guildhall event and on our first trading day.

We are particularly grateful to Danielle JACKSON, their

Training Office, for all the help she has given.

We still have a lot to do so we must all be patient a little

while longer.

We hope you will continue to share this journey with us

and watch us grow, and grow!

Christine

Christine Reid

Chair

DCFA Board of Trustees

DCFA NEWS

UNDRAISER. This is a time-consuming occupation but a

very important one for us. We are looking for someone

who has experience in this field of expertise to help us in a

voluntary capacity. Interested? Please contact Geoff

(details at the top of the page).

ARJON FIELDWORK SUPERVISORS’ BRIEFING.

Marjon invited

current and

prospective Field Work

Supervisors to their

second Briefing on

Friday, 4th

February

2011. That meeting gave another opportunity for new

Supervisors to find out what is involved in having a UCP

Marjon Youth & Community student on placement, as well

as an opportunity for experienced Fieldwork Supervisors to

update themselves on the processes and procedures.Our DCFA Secretary, Geoff, attended and one of Co-opted

Members to our Board of Trustees, Hazel, also attended but

was representing Plymouth Community Homes.

For further information please contact:

[email protected]

DDOO YYOOUU WWIISSHH TTOO BBEECCOOMMEE AA

FFRRIIEENNDD OOFF DDCCFFAA??

GGoo oonn--lliinnee,, ddoowwnnllooaadd tthhee

AApppplliiccaattiioonn FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee

ddeettaaiillss aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..

F

M

http://dcfa.webs.com/

mailto:[email protected]






Contact the DCFA Newsletter Editor at DCFA... details at the top of Page 1.

2

USTAINABLE FOOD FAYRE AT DEVONPORT GUILDHALL.

Devonport Guildhall was awash with stalls displaying

their wares and people milling about sampling goodies, on

Thursday, 17th

February 2011.

Why was this? It was the launch of the new Plymouth Food

Charter1. This event was funded by the South West Food &

Drink Association. Approximately 150 people attended the

event. There were chefs preparing fine food, together with

the staff of Devonport Guildhall. There was a delivery of

organic food by boat, which had sailed down the River

Tamar to the event.

Tucked away in the corner and sharing a table was the

DCFA Display Stand. Decorated by Danielle JACKSON and

Student Volunteers from the Plymouth City College. Julia

POLLARD from WRAP2

and Eunice HALLIDAY a DCFA

Trustee, also helped out.

The theme was Apples and these were distributed to

curious customers! The location of our stall was not ideal,

but thanks to two Co-opted Members of our Board of

Trustees, Patrick and Gitty, who were busy networking,

offers Food Produce came pouring in to our Secretary!

Each little thing helps to promote the cause of DCFA.Our especial thanks to Danielle and to her Students who

helped on the day.

Submitted by Christine REID, DCFA Chair

The picture below shows Polly FITZSIMMONS one of our

Student Volunteers from Plymouth City College...

Photograph courtesy Danielle JACKSON

TTHHIISS SSPPAACCEE CCOOUULLDD HHAAVVEE BBEEEENN UUSSEEDD

TTOO PPLLAACCEE

YYOOUURR NNOOTTIICCEE!!

WWhhyy nnoott ccoonnttaacctt tthhee EEddiittoorr??

1 http://www.tasteofthewest.co.uk/content/sustainable-food-city-

plymouth.html 2 http://www.wrap.org.uk/

DCFA PRESS RELEASE

RESS RELEASE. Our Public Relations Officer, Alison SHAW

issued our second Press Release, in February 2011. Full

details are shown below:

Project commences trading in the South West

This exciting initiative begins trading today on Wednesday,23

rdFebruary after nine months of planning and

preparation.

The Devon & Cornwall Food Association (DCFA) was formed

to provide good quality food to organisations working with

disadvantaged people within our communities. Every year

millions of tonnes of first class food ends up in landfill sites.

At the same time, even in today’s society, there are

thousands of men, women and children living in poverty in

our cities, towns and villages.

The DCFA plans eventually to become part of FareShare UK

which is a national charity supporting communities to

relieve food poverty, and in-date food will be collectedfrom the FareShare South West outlet at Bristol on a

regular basis.

The DCFA is a private company limited by guarantee and

has an elected Board of Trustees; and all of its Trustees are

very much hands-on within the organisation. DCFA is

currently in the process of becoming a Registered Charity

under the auspices of the Charity Commission.

DCFA intends to receive and distribute food produce on a

weekly basis initially during the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

at the Salvation Army Congress Hall, Armada Way in

Plymouth City Centre. DCFA is currently dealing with just

one major food producer at present: Robert Wiseman &Sons Limited based at Pensilva in Cornwall.

Our Student Volunteers from the Plymouth City College, led

by their Training Officer, Ms. Danielle Jackson, will be

receiving the produce and distributing it out to the ten

charitable organisations in the Plymouth Postcode area that

have registered with the DCFA.

The students will also be assisting in the setting up of a

monitoring and recording system to keep track of all the

produce received and distributed.

A DCFA spokesperson said ...

“We are grateful and delighted with the response from both

Wiseman Dairies and the Plymouth City College, and theinterest and support we have received from right across the

South West. We are working closely with FareShare South

West, based at Bristol, and many other organisations,

including food distributors and producers.

The DCFA is urgently seeking funds to acquire permanent

storage facilities, cold storage and transport. We are

earnestly hoping that perhaps there is someone reading

this who could help us with this so we can become better

established with permanent premises. We are also looking

for a rota of drivers to drive to Bristol on a weekly basis to

collect food whilst making a drop-offat Exter en route to

Plymouth.

SP

http://www.tasteofthewest.co.uk/content/sustainable-food-city-plymouth.html




http://www.wrap.org.uk/









3

We have received a generous grant from the Church Urban

Fund to cover some of our setting-up costs but continual

fundraising is vital. Again, if there is anyone reading this who is

admin- minded... you may be just the person we need to help

with our fund raising bids! This can be done day or night, any

place... so long as you have access to a computer!“

If you can help in any way, please get in touch with our

Company Secretary, Geoff Read, by telephoning 07745819828

or by emailing him on: [email protected]

If you are interested in finding out more about our

charitable organisation and its aims, please visit our website

at http://dcfa.webs.com/

To find out more about FareShare UK, please visit

www.fareshare.org.uk

Patrick HUDSON and Andy HAWKINS doing something

useful at last... unloading the very first delivery of milk from

Robert Wisemans & Sons based at Pensilva, Cornwall.

Picture courtesy Christine REID

Almost 300 litres of milk received and distributed to

nine charitable groups throughout the Plymouth

postcode area. Each

group will greatly

benefit from this. If

DCFA continues at this

rate, it will result in adiversion of around 15

tonnes of milk a year

from landfill / low-

grade use and be a

boost to recipient organisations of around £15,000

in savings per year. If that’s not something to jump

up and down about I don’t know what is! Contributed by Patrick HUDSON

DDOO YYOOUU WWIISSHH TTOO

VVOOLLUUNNTTEEEERR WWIITTHH DDCCFFAA??


AApppplliiccaattiioonn FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee

ddeettaaiillss aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..

DCFA MEETINGS

ARCH 2011. Our next Board Meeting will be held at

10.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 1st

March 2011 in the

Tapisers Room at The Old Deanery in Exeter. Any

suggested items for discussion should be sent to theSecretary (contact details at the foot of the page).

UTURE MEETINGS. All future meetings will be

scheduled for 10.30 a.m. but are subject to change at

short notice.

Tuesday, 12th

April 2011(Please note that this meeting is one week later than normally scheduled

and will start at 11.30 a.m. and not 10.30 as usual).

- General Board Meeting (Truro)

Tuesday, 3rd

May 2011

- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)

Tuesday, 7th

June 2011


Tuesday, 5th

July 2011


Tuesday, 2nd

August 2011


Tuesday, 8th

November 2011

- Annual General Meeting (Plymouth

AY 2011 MEETING. Catherine Street Baptist Church

will not be available to us for our meeting on

Tuesday, 3rd

May 2011. This meeting will therefore be held

in the Theatre Royal by kind permission of their

Management.

NNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2011. Our AGM will be

held on Tuesday, 8th

November 2011 and we’re already

looking for one or two Guest Speakers. Can you help or do

you know someone that can? Please contact Geoff (details

at the top of Page 1).

M

F

M

A







http://www.fareshare.org.uk/








4




AApppplliiccaattiioonn FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee ddeettaaiillss aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..

EVERYONE DESERVES THEIR FARESHARE!An article by Alison SHAW... a DCFA Trustee

HIS banner greeted us recently when a group from the

DCFA visited FareShare South West at Bristol to see how

their operation worked and how we might become part of it.

During our morning’s visit we were warmly welcomed by

FareShare SW’s employed workers, Pete and Jacqui, and by the

numerous volunteers of whom there are around 40 or so.

Many of the volunteers come from the organisations that are

helped with food supplies and an important part of the

Fareshare ethos is that there are regular meetings with

volunteers and the support of an NHS Forensic Mental Heath

Worker. The Big Issue played an important part in advertising

for volunteers when FareShare SW opened its doors in October

2007.

Fareshare SW provides a community food network with

cookery projects and works with 15 schools and the University

of the West of England. It delivers to 34 groups who each pay

an annual membership subscription based on their numbers.

Groups such as church projects, day centres and night centres

all benefit.

Food comes into FareShare SW from a variety of sources...

Sainsburys and Nestle being big suppliers of surplus food. Fresh

food provides the backbone with ready meals and pasta, rice,

and cook-in-sauces too.

We were all astounded by the numbers catered for... in

November 2010, 29 tonnes of food were collected and 33

tonnes delivered... which equates to 78,000 meals!

When those figures are set against the statistic that in the UK

over four million people cannot afford to eat a healthy diet, it

shows just how essential the work of FareShare nationally, and

organisations such as the DCFA, really are.

FareShare SW has contacts far and wide... they are about to

begin deliveries to Weston-Super-Mare and they receive

regular donations from a monastery in Camarthen!

We were pleased to receive lots of advice that’ll help with our

work in Devon and Cornwall and we look forward to regular

visits to FareShare South West in Bristol in the future.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?An article by Hazel ALEXANDER...

a Co-opted Member to the DCFA Board of

Trustees

T’S AT THIS TIME OF YEAR that many of us are thinking

about our waist.

This is usually because the turkey and all the delicious seasonal

trimmings have well and truly come home to roost and have

perched themselves very firmly anywhere from our ribs down!

But instead... I’d like you to think a little bit about waste!

Often when manufacturers produce or package foods ready for

shops and supermarkets there’s a surplus and currently this

perfectly good food goes to landfill and this is happening whilst

local organisations are trying to provide food for people in

difficult circumstances. DCFA wants to get this food to those

organisations, but to do it, we will need your help!

If you have some time to help us share this spare food out to

these organisations we’d love to hear from you! There are a

variety of tasks you can get involved with, just get in touch with

Geoff (contact details at the top of Page 1) and we can tell you

a bit more about us and what we’re hoping to do.

Meanwhile, I’m off to work out how many calories

volunteering burns an hour!

WWOOUULLDD YYOOUURR OORRGGAANNIISSAATTIIOONN

BBEENNEEFFIITT FFRROOMM AA

TTAALLKK && PPOOWWEERRPPOOIINNTT

PPRREESSEENNTTAATTIIOONN??

AArree yyoouu aa sscchhooooll,, aa cchhaarriittyy,, aa f f aaiitthh

ggrroouupp oorr ssoommee ootthheerr oorrggaanniissaattiioonn

nneeeeddiinngg ttoo kknnooww mmoorree aabboouutt

DDCCFFAA??

WWee wwiillll ccoommee ttoo yyoouu aanndd f f iivvee aa

bbrriieef f ttaallkk aanndd PPoowweerrPPooiinntt

PPrreesseennttaattiioonn ttoo tteellll yyoouu

aabboouutt oouurr wwoorrkk..

JJuusstt ccoonnttaacctt GGeeoof f f f ......

c c oonnt t aac c t t d d eet t aai i l l ss aat t

t t hhee t t oopp oof f P P aaggee 11..

BBooookk nnooww!!

T

I




5

TRAINING & COURSES

AST CORNWALL COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICES

(ECCVS) is one of three organisations that employ anInter-Link Development Officer. Inter-Link Cornwall is a

project which is designed to link members of community-

based groups with each other and with workers from

statutory agencies to help them to work together, and

therefore give a better service to the members of their

communities. Inter-Link Officers arrange locality meetings,

training events and produce a newsletter to enable

information to be distributed to its members. Our DCFA

Secretary, Geoff, recently attended one such Locality

Meeting in Liskeard and found it ideal for networking.

For more information please contact Grayburn OWEN at:

[email protected]

OCIAL ENTERPRISE WORKSHOPS AND ONE-TO-ONE

BUSINESS ADVICE CLINICS. These workshops and clinics

are being offered FREE by Co-active Ltd.

Plymouth advice clinics:

Book a one-hour slot for a clinic between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.:

Tuesday, 8th

March 2011

For more details and to book your place please contact:

Marie WHITE

Telephone: 0845 519 5759(9.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays)

Business Services

PO Box 36

Newton Abbot TQ13 0WP

Co-active Ltd. Registered in England

(company registration no. 2050566)

Registered office:

26-28 Southernhay East,

Exeter EX1 1NS

http://www.co-active.org.uk



GGoo oonn--lliinnee,, ddoowwnnllooaadd tthhee AApppplliiccaattiioonn

FFoorrmm,, ccoommpplleettee tthhee ddeettaaiillss

aanndd ssuubbmmiitt iitt ttoo GGeeoof f f f ..

OTHER NEWS

HE LAST THING OUR HUNGRY WORLD NEEDS IS MORE

FOOD! By Fred Pearce. This article was published on

the Mail On-line on Sunday, 6th

February 2011:

'Every time there is a famine, it turns out later that someone,

usually just down the road, was hoarding food for sale,' said

Fred PEARCE.Government chief scientist Sir John

BEDDINGTON calls it the perfect

storm. Soaring world population,

coupled with climate change, is set to

create a world food crisis and leave

billions starving.

'We are at a unique moment in

history,' he said recently, while

launching a report from his

Government think-tank, Foresight.

The Foresight project, Global Food &

Farming Futures, says only arevolution in the way the world grows

its food can save us. Clearly, David

CAMERON'S top boffin wants to kick-start that revolution.The world's population will reach seven billion this year and may peak at

nine billion by mid-century. There are plenty of things wrong with the

world's food system. But the amount of food it produces isn't one of them.

We already grow enough food to nourish nine billion people, probably

15billion people, in fact, for we eat only about one third of those crops.

Much of the global harvest feeds livestock... an inefficient route for

delivering our nutrition, since it takes eight calories of grain to produce

one calorie of meat.

Plenty more is diverted to make biofuels. An African could live for a year

on the corn needed to fill one gas-guzzling SUV fuel tank with ethanol.

That's not all. In the developing world, an estimated 30% of the harvest

is eaten by rats and insects, or rots in grain silos. We in the First World

are better at preventing losses, but then we throw about 25% our food

away, uneaten.

The truth is that the world's farmers could probably double the amount

of food they grow... using GM crops and other technologies... and still

people would go hungry. This is ultimately not about production or

about human numbers, it is about poverty.

Every time there’s a famine, it turns out later that someone, usually just

down the road, was hoarding food for sale. The problem is that the

hungry families didn't have the cash to buy it.

Every few years we get news reports that there are only so many days'

supply of grain in the world's warehouses. If the warehouses are full,

prices fall and farmers stop producing. When they start to empty, prices

rise, farmers start planting and soon the warehouses are full again.

BEDDINGTON'S perfect storm is the operation of a perfect market. Does

this mis-diagnosis matter? Even if we grow enough food, surely growingmore can't hurt.

Well, yes, it does matter. Because BEDDINGTON'S planned revolution

stands a good chance of making the poor poorer. It could mean we have

both more food and more famines. This is because most of the methods

he suggests to increase food production are about big farms and big

investment.

Government chief scientist Sir John BEDDINGTON'S planned revolution

could mean we have both more food and more famines.

BEDDINGTON wants to plough up vast tracts of African cattle pastures and

amalgamate the smallholdings of millions of peasant farmers to create

giant, high-tech farms. His blueprint will take land away from the rural

poor.

Last month, I watched this scenario playing out on the edge of the Sahara

desert in Mali. The government there has recruited foreign experts to help

it invest in agriculture. Western aid agencies are building irrigation projectsto boost production of rice.

E

S

T



http://www.co-active.org.uk/


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Fred+Pearce









6

Libya's Colonel GADDAFI, Mali's biggest sugar daddy, has just dug a 25-mile

canal to irrigate an area of dry scrub three times the size of the Isle of

Wight.

The trouble is that these projects will take water out of the River Niger.

They will empty fertile wet pastures just downstream, where one million of

Mali's poorest people currently live by catching fish and grazing their

cattle. They fear the plans will create desert.

Most of the rice from the new fields will go to feed Libyans. Meanwhile,

the poor of the Niger wetlands are likely to join the Al-Qaeda groups

already penetrating the country's desert borders.

BEDDINGTON is right that farming needs investment. But it has to be the

right investment. Perhaps he should have a word with another of theGovernment's scientific advisers, Professor Robert WATSON, the real

Whitehall food expert.

He is currently chief scientist at the Department for Environment Food and

Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Three years ago he chaired an international report

on the future of the world's farming.

In the developing world, an estimated 30% of the harvest is eaten by rats

and insects, or rots in grain silos.

WATSON reached rather different conclusions from BEDDINGTON.

He said African smallholder farmers should be backed, not stripped of their

land; that local knowledge of crops would often work better than high-tech

methods; and that fighting poverty was the key to feeding the world.

WATSON told me: 'It's not a technical challenge; it's a rural development

challenge. Small farmers will remain the predominant producers. The

question is how to help them.'

BEDDINGTON sees the spread of Western farming methods and giant foodand seed companies as the solution to the food problem.

WATSON sees it as part of the problem. BEDDINGTON'S report says: 'We

need to make agriculture more efficient.'

But more efficient for whom? For agribusiness and its bottom line? Or for

farmers and consumers? In an age where the smart investment banks are

putting their cash into biofuels rather than bread, and where large

corporations are buying farms across the developing world to grow cotton

for cash rather than food for people, the two are not the same thing.

BEDDINGTON'S report chastises countries such as India, which imposed

bans on food exports during the food price crisis in early 2008 in an effort

to keep their people fed.

He blames them for undoubtedly exacerbating the crisis, and says such

protectionist actions should be banned. He has no such strictures for the

speculators who caused the soaring prices.

Surely if we've learned anything over the past couple of years, it is that

unbridled markets can bring chaos, and speculators are a menace. It was

bad enough letting the financial markets run riot. But if the food markets

run riot we will have empty bellies as well as empty pockets.

Peoplequake by Fred PEARCE, is published by Eden Project

Books at £8.99.

To order your copy at £8.49 with free p&p, call The Review

Bookstore on 08451550713 or visit www.MailLife.co.uk/Books.

Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353810/Beddingtons-perfect-

storm-Last-thing-hungry-world-needs-food.html#ixzz1DUxiHhcr

Contributed by Andy HAWKINS, DCFA Trustee

WWOOUULLDD YYOOUURR OORRGGAANNIISSAATTIIOONN

BBEENNEEFFIITT FFRROOMM AA

TTAALLKK && PPOOWWEERRPPOOIINNTT

PPRREESSEENNTTAATTIIOONN??

AArree yyoouu aa sscchhooooll,, aa cchhaarriittyy,, aa f f aaiitthh

ggrroouupp oorr ssoommee ootthheerr oorrggaanniissaattiioonn

nneeeeddiinngg ttoo kknnooww mmoorree aabboouutt

DDCCFFAA??

WWee wwiillll ccoommee ttoo yyoouu aanndd f f iivvee aa

bbrriieef f ttaallkk aanndd PPoowweerrPPooiinntt

PPrreesseennttaattiioonn ttoo tteellll yyoouu aabboouutt oouurr wwoorrkk..

JJuusstt ccoonnttaacctt GGeeoof f f f ......

c c oonnt t aac c t t d d eet t aai i l l ss aat t

t t hhee t t oopp oof f P P aaggee 11..

BBooookk nnooww!!

The Devon &Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA) is a Private Company Limited by Guarantee.

Registered Company Number: 07419679. Registered Charity Number: Pending.

Members of : NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations) PTSC The Plymouth Third Sector Consortium),

And The Small Charities Coalition.

Our Funder:

....And Voluntary Donations...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353810/Beddingtons-perfect-storm-Last-thing-hungry-world-needs-food.html#ixzz1DUxiHhcr





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DCFA Feb-Mar 2011 Newsletter

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