Merthyr Tydfil Food Prosperity Network - Food Poverty Strategy and Associated Action Plan

Tender description

The Merthyr Tydfil Food Prosperity Network is an alliance of third sector and statutory partners who have come together to address the issue of food and fuel poverty in the County Borough. The ultimate aim of the Network is to provide every individual within the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough to have the means by which to access affordable, nutritious food by taking a partnership approach and seeking to make this sustainable n the long term. The Borough currently has a network of 5 food pantries, two food banks, a fuel bank plus other provision for hot meal delivery. Partners are committed to the Network and to ensuring that everyone can access affordable and nutritious food. Each local provider is a member of FareShare Cymru, as well as accessing schemes such as Neighbourly. Each provider receives between 0.5-1.5 tonnes of food each week from FareShare. Purpose and Proposal To create a Food Poverty Strategy and associated Action Plan to outline an approach towards a range of Sustainable Food solutions to tackle Food Insecurity challenges across the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil Scope of study The aim of this piece of work, funded by Welsh Government, is to prepare a strategy with an associated action plan to identify how best food provisioning and support can be maintained and sustained going forward, and to potentially grow additional new provision etc. This would include, but is not restricted to: • Alternative sources of good quality food to reduce the pressures and demands on FareShare. This would include a diverse range of food and produce suppliers who could help. • Identifying local organisations who could potentially contribute to the provision of food locally and what barriers stand in their way. • Identifying good practice and models from across the UK, in partnership with Feeding Britain, that can be further developed and utilized to move Merthyr Tydfil forward • Scoping options for employment/training opportunities within current and future food provision to allow groups who have repurposed existing staff to develop and serve their provision with a new or additional resource to ensure sustainability. • Examine how better links between food provision can be connected with wider information and advice services, allowing for a standardisation of support available across the County Borough, ensuring that clients receive appropriate support and information to access other services which would further assist their personal circumstances at point of contact. • Scoping potential sources of future funding and developing a “model application” which could be used strategically to apply for future funding. Role Requirements: To produce a Food Poverty Strategy and associated Action Plan. To scope out potential future sources and develop a “model funding application” which could be used by either the council, the Food Prosperity Network or one of the Network’s partners to apply for future funding. To work with Council departments, Voluntary Action Merthyr Tydfil (VAMT) and a range of Third & Community Sector Organisations along with other social enterprises and other interested parties from across the County Borough. To identify new innovative ways to promote food prosperity developments and help partners explore sustainable approaches to tackling the food insecurity challenges that exist. . To undertake frequent engagement with MTCBC, VAMT and the Food Prosperity Network to update on progress and seek guidance on delivery.