“Where are you seeing real potential for your sector to work with others to make Lincoln stronger together, and what kind of collaboration would unlock that?”
This was the faith-inspired question posed at this year’s Civic Prayer Breakfast at Lincoln Cathedral this morning.
Answers came distinctively from voices across Business & Finance; Community & Family; Health & Wellbeing; Sport; Youth, and yet what was striking was their resonance and alignment with each other.
Make Lincoln stronger by making Lincoln healthier
I’d love to see collaboration to end health inequalities, and deepening Lincoln’s connection with good food.
Trying to address inequalities of any kind through cheap food is catastrophic: cheap food is the ultimate false economy.
Far better to focus instead on good food. By “good food” I mean food that is
- nourishing for our bodies;
- delicious, diverse and a pleasure to share;
- environmentally restorative.
We need a good food economy, a good food culture, and good food place-making.
It’s imperative that those who are most at risk of health inequalities are the MOST deeply embedded in the resilient good food ecosystem.
Good food growth is literal as well as economic
Lincoln residents are expressing a desire for a renaissance of fruit and vegetable production on the urban fringe. Unlocking this potential for healthy communities will take collaboration across sectors.
Those working with young people, and with people who are unemployed – we need to talk about creating work experience and apprenticeships ready for skilled jobs in edible horticulture and sustainable kitchens.
Teachers and educators – we need to co-design urban-fringe farms to be ready to support educational visits and good food in schools – both classrooms and canteens.
Those involved in food procurement and institutions that serve food – we need to start exploring choice architecture for sustainable diets. For example, how can seasonal menus have any meaning in a changing climate, if chefs and growers aren’t talking to each other?
Those working in City of Lincoln Council and spatial planning – we need to get our heads together for a food element in the new Local Plan, and build good food spaces into new developments and into our built environments.
Connection through food
Siân Wade, who gave the keynote at the Civil Prayer Breakfast, quipped that all collaboration should be done over good coffee – a remark met with nods and smiles aplenty!
Companionship matters – and its etymology of “bread-fellows” – matters, too.
Good food has an extraordinary power to bring people together, to be relational and not just transactional.
We need it more than ever.
Thank you to the Lincoln Independent for publishing this in the July print edition
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