Shropshire’s food supply work inspires others to change

Shropshire County Council held a successful event at Shrewsbury Town's football stadium last Wednesday (7 November) to share their findings, following the successful completion of a project to increase the efficiencies in food supply.

The event was attended by around 80 delegates, including people from councils, the NHS, hospitals and school meals caterers from across the West Midlands and England.

The 18-month project "Increasing Efficiency from Grower to Eater", funded by the West Midlands Centre of Excellence, was undertaken to investigate how to increase the efficiency of food procurement to the public sector. It also explored the potential of local producers working together to meet the needs of local people.

Delegates were inspired by the potential improvements which could be made to food in the public sector, and the efficiencies and benefits that could be achieved for the local economy and the environment.

Ruth Hudson, sustainability assistant at Shropshire County Council, said “This project explored the opportunity to generate improvements through an efficiency review of current food buying practice, build on current partnership work to engage further public sector buyers, and positively influence the regional supply chain to meet customer demands.

“I am pleased we have been able to share our findings with so many other public sector buyers, and I hope many of them will be inspired to make changes in their organisations. I think it shows that there is now a real enthusiasm to make changes, and the range of case studies have shown that there are food supply models that will fit different requirements; and by working together, real changes can be made.”

This event was run in partnership with English Farming and Food Partnerships (EFFP), the West Midlands Centre of Excellence and Government Office West Midlands.

16 November 2007