Author: Laura Stratford

  • The Reality of Food Poverty in Lincoln

    A new report shows a dramatic rise in the number of Lincoln residents needing emergency food parcels from the city’s food banks. The greatest increase is among households with children: children now account for 35% of all people fed by food banks in Lincoln.  The two largest food bank networks in Lincoln provided almost 47,000…

  • Thank you Ticky!

    Thank you Ticky!

    Ticky Nadal is stepping down from her role as Food Partnership Coordinator at the end of March, to focus more on her work at Board Director at Mint Lane CIC. Ticky has done so much for the Food Partnership, especially working with foodbanks and community larders across the county; reducing food waste; championing healthy diets…

  • A Lincolnshire Breadbasket

    A Lincolnshire Breadbasket

    I was recently in a meeting about agri food, when an academic said to me – Laura, remember that farmers don’t really have that much to do with food. At first I was taken aback, but there is a sense in which selling a crop into a global commodity market does create a fairly stunning…

  • Notes from the Tamar Valley

    Notes from the Tamar Valley

    Food Partnership Coordinator, Laura Stratford, made a research trip to the Tamar Valley, an area of the country where the Open Food Network is being used to great effect, to see if Lincolnshire might take a leaf from their book… Accessing Local Food Lincolnshire produces a huge proportion of the nation’s food.  But if we,…

  • Who is responsible for food waste?

    Who is responsible for food waste?

    The short answer: it’s all of us – governments and policy makers, businesses and organisations, communities, households and individuals.  You, me, individuals, families, households… Most of us could reduce our household food waste and also save a bit of money by planning and shopping thoughtfully, being savvy with leftovers and learning a few smart recipes.…

  • Help Tackle Poverty in Lincolnshire

    Help Tackle Poverty in Lincolnshire

    To highlight the devastation brought by the Cost of Living Crisis, FareShare Midlands recently hosted a Help Tackle Poverty in Lincolnshire event at their Lincoln warehouse, with the support of the Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership and the Lincolnshire Co-op. Senior representatives from local businesses, the public sector and the food industry were invited to visit…

  • Garibaldi Street Garden

    Garibaldi Street Garden

    Transforming a Grimsby car park Community groups are taking a grassroots approach to growing fresh food in a Grimsby neighbourhood at a time of rapidly rising food prices! Groups in the town’s East Marsh community are are set to create a new urban orchard and community garden in the Garibaldi Street Car Park in Grimsby.…

  • How to start a CSA

    How to start a CSA

    Lessons & updates from Ropsley Market Garden Ropsley Market Garden is Lincolnshire’s first Community Supported Agriculture project – a membership based market garden, in which the community plays a meaningful part in local food production.  We are more than consumers! We blogged about Ropsley Market Garden CSA here last January, and wanted to find out…

  • OFN workshops 2023

    OFN workshops 2023

    The Open Food Network in Lincolnshire We’re still buzzing from the conversations led by Nick Weir form the Open Food Network, about developing local food networks and food hubs in Lincolnshire. 25 people travelled from across the county (Greater Lincolnshire is MASSIVE!) and gathered at Mint Lane Cafe in Lincoln, for two OFN workshops and a convivial…

  • Farming with Nature

    Farming with Nature

    This is a picture of a cow pat. Specifically, it is a Lincoln Red cow’s dung pat – one of the surprising things that I was giving my attention to during a recent walk in the fields with Isobel Wright, who looks after Wilder Doddington. Wilder Doddington If you have been to Doddington Hall, you…