University works with Moulsecoomb residents to promote local, healthy food (From The Argus)

University works with Moulsecoomb residents to promote local, healthy food

8:37am Tuesday 26th October 2010 in Community

A small food project started in July is bringing together university and community members in Moulsecoomb. The project is all about working together to bring sustainable, local, healthy food to the University of Brighton and its neighbouring communities.

Some ideas we’ve had so far, and ways to get involved:

• A food co-op where local residents and University members can combine their buying power to purchase local and sustainable produced foods at a lower price.
• Lots of fun food events, such as food markets & film screenings.
• Opportunities to learn more about food growing through workshops.
• Opportunities for students and residents to come together to share views about local food and the local area.
• Volunteering opportunities, such as helping to run events, being part of a food coop, or joining a community garden.

Communities are essential for the development of sustainable food systems and the university feels it is important its staff, students and local residents have more opportunities to interact more often. The project, running from July 2010 to January 2011, is all about building relationships, linking up with different initiatives, sharing ideas...and then acting.

Our long term vision is to create local food communities around all five University of Brighton campuses and the whole university community. This project will focus on the Brighton area, and especially the University’s Moulsecoomb campus and its local neighbours.

East Brighton is home to the largest of the University’s campuses, and an area where many University students and members of staff live alongside members of the local community. We feel Moulsecoomb is an important place to start exploring local food communities and opportunities because there is little availability of fresh, local food in the area, but there are lots of people who can work together to change this. This project is all about ‘local’: people, businesses, food.

We want to see more food grown on our doorsteps and people coming together to buy, share and eat.

The ‘growing local food communities’ project is being led by the University of Brighton sustainable development coordination unit in partnership with Harvest Brighton and Hove.

The project is being funded through the University of Brighton Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP) On Our Doorsteps programme, which is all about building good relationships between University Campuses and local residents.

To find out more about the project or to get involved, please contact: Elona Hoover, Mobile: 07722 177737 Phone: 01273 644707 Email: E.Hoover@brighton.ac.uk