July 2026 Newsletter
July's Newsletter: Beyond Foodbanks
Hello Gateshead Food Partnership members,
I hope you’re all enjoying the summer and keeping safe in the heat waves we’ve been having. Please read on for July’s Food Partnership newsletter. Please note previous newsletters are published on our website here. If you are not receiving this email directly, please consider signing up to receive future newsletters by signing our Food Charter here. As always, if you have anything you would like to share in future newsletters with our network of almost 200 organisations and individuals who want to work together towards good food in Gateshead, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Upcoming events
- Bensham Bites Our next workshop for Bensham Bites takes place on Tuesday 21 July, 10.30-12.30 at Bensham Grove Community Centre. This workshop will be led by Suzanne Amey from Herb Hub and will look at ideas and techniques for the preservation of herbs. Flyer is attached; you can book via Eventbrite: https://BenshamBitesJuly26.eventbrite.co.uk. Email: info@dingybutterflies.org . We look forward to seeing you at the next workshop.
- We’re getting excited for the Food Festival event on August 2nd in Gateshead Town Centre! Lots of our Food Partnership organisations will be part of the Community Cook Off, doing food demonstrations, or selling their wares. All in the Railway Quarter area. Come on down and say hello! (And it's not too late to have a stall or activity - get in touch if you'd like to be involved). Click here to view the facebook event.
- Our next Food Partnership Steering Group meeting will be held on Tuesday 4th August 10.00-12.00 at the Comfrey Project. This meeting will be focussing on food growing in Gateshead: we will be reviewing our work so far across the partnership and setting out strategies for next steps. If you have interest in this area and are available you are welcome to join us, even if you are not currently a member of the Steering Group. Please let me know if do want to come along.
- Brighten the Day is back for the school summer holidays with funded fun and food for eligible children and young people. Whether your child loves being active, getting creative, exploring the outdoors or trying something new, the Brighten the Day summer programme is packed with opportunities to learn, play and make new friends. You can book activities now using your e-voucher (if you have not received the e-voucher, check your spam/junk folder for an email from hello@holidayactivties.com). New for Summer 2026 we are trialling for the first time some Family Food and Fun sessions – offering 20 family cooking sessions in venues across Gateshead. Each family will go home with the food they’ve cooked as well as two recipe boxes, ingredients, and equipment kindly donated by IKEA to be able to cook more at home. See the flyer attached fore more information on this. To find out more about all the clubs running, or to check eligibility, visit our Brighten the Day webpage.
From Crisis to Resilience
This month’s newsletter has a particular focus on the first statement in the Gateshead Food Charter: that Gateshead becomes a place where everyone has access to healthy, nutritious, and affordable food, moving from reliance on food aid to food justice and resilience.
Across Gateshead, there are hundreds of people every week giving their time, energy and compassion to make sure their neighbours don't go hungry. Food banks, emergency food provision and crisis support remain a lifeline for many people, and the pressure on household budgets has not gone away. But many of us are asking some big questions: how did we get to a point where food banks became a normal and expected feature of everyday life? What can we do to prevent people needing emergency food support in the first place? What would it mean for more people to be able to access good food with dignity, choice, and connection to their community? What would it look like to create a food system that doesn't just respond to crisis, but helps prevent it?
This month, we're sharing some of the work, ideas and opportunities helping move us from crisis response towards a fairer and more resilient local food system.
Feeding Britain event
On Friday 2nd July the Feeding Britain Network Gathering is took place in Newcastle, and the theme was “From Crisis to Resilience”. Partners from across the UK joined together to share good practice, workshop ideas, and help drive the affordable food movement to help foster resilient communities that can move people away from crisis. The day included showcasing some of the great work going on in Gateshead. Read our post-event report on our website here.
At the event, we premiered our new film, created by talented folk at Digital Voice: please have a watch by clicking on the picture below:
National campaigns
This conversation is gathering momentum locally and nationally. The Alliance for Dignified Food Support recently launched at campaign
“Working Together for a Food Bank Free Britain”. Feeding Britain are working hard to push through policy levers that will make a huge difference in increasing incomes: including supporting families in the school holidays –
please read their briefing here and consider
signing this petition to ensure all who are eligible for Free School Meals are allowed access to the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme. Feeding Britain also hosts an Affordable Food Clubs network and are collecting persuasive data every year that shows their role in boosting diet, strengthening financial security and fostering community. See
this report and
this article from Feeding Britain.
So, how are we going to take on this challenge in Gateshead? Through partnership working, of course!
The Crisis and Resilience Fund and all the opportunities, joined-up work, training and resources to come through that; organisations learning from and supporting each other through the Food Justice Network: whether to put in more wrap-around support services, changes in models or food offers, advocacy and evidence collection; and projects like the Food Hub ultimately being a way for organisations to procure nutritious and locally-grown fresh produce. Read on to find out more…
Crisis and Resilience Fund
The new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), the fund which has replaced Household Support Fund, has set criteria that shifts focus away from emergency food aid, towards ‘cash first not food first’ crisis support approach and investment in services and support that will help build financial resilience. Gateshead Council will be launching their CRF Resilience Services Grant Programme on Friday 17th July and the deadline for applications is Monday 17th August.
A couple of information sessions were held on 13th/ 14th July and the slides from these sessions as well as background information on the Crisis & Resilience Fund and guidance on the grant programme will be made available on Gateshead Council's website along with the link to the online application form. Please go to www.gateshead.gov.uk and search for 'CRF grant programme'.
In the meantime here are some links to webinars, reports and podcast which might be useful for you when thinking about what you might apply for and/or the approach you wish to take: this webinar from Sustain about Wrap around support and the CRF, this more general about food projects and CRF , and this podcast from Feeding Britain about co-locating advice services.
Gateshead Food Justice Network
"Hi everyone, I’m Hannah, the new Food Justice Network & Projects Lead at Feeding Families.
Over the coming months I’ll be spending time getting to know the people and organisations in Gateshead that support their communities with food. I’m looking forward to visiting projects, hearing about the work you’re doing and understanding the challenges and opportunities you see within your communities.
The Food Justice Network has been created to bring together the wealth of knowledge, experience and commitment that already exists across Gateshead. It aims to become an ‘arm’ of the Food Partnership, very much aligned to the Food Charter’s vision but focussed particularly on the first aim, to move from food aid to food justice and resilience. By creating stronger relationships between organisations, sharing learning and building on what’s already working well, I hope we can better understand the causes of food insecurity and identify opportunities to respond collectively.
While emergency food provision will always play an important role, I’m also interested in how we can work together to reduce the need for it over time. That means thinking beyond food alone and exploring how stronger partnerships, shared evidence and collaboration can help address the wider issues that drive food insecurity and support lasting change.
If we haven’t met yet, I’d love to hear about your work and your perspective. Whether you’re part of a community group, charity, public service, local business or have lived experience of food insecurity, your insight is an important part of the conversation. Please do get in touch if you’d like to connect, I look forward to meeting many of you over the coming months. - Hannah Lucy-Jackson, hannah@feedingfamilies.org.uk"
Bulk purchasing food with Feeding Families: offer for new sign-ups
You may have followed the news in March this year our Gateshead Food Hub pilot project run by Green Heart NE was handed over to Feeding Families, who have the logistics and capabilities to scale the offer and support more organisations regionally. Read more about this transition here. If your organisation purchases food to serve your community and you haven’t yet signed up to the scheme, or if you bought from Green Heart previously and haven’t yet connected with Feeding families, they are currently offering a Gateshead-only £100 first sign up discount to charities when placing first order. Read more and get in touch with the team here.
Bags of Taste
We have just finished a pilot in Gateshead with Bags of Taste: aimed at helping people overcome barriers to eating well at home. They provide free ingredients, practical recipes, and personal mentoring that changes lives. The results from the trial in Gateshead were that out of the 18 families who took part in the programme 72% completed all three recipes, with only two participants unable to cook any dishes due to complex personal circumstances. Participants reported increased confidence in cooking at home, reduced reliance on convenience foods and takeaways, and average potential savings of £14 per week on their food shopping. One of the participants said: "I'm most proud of learning that cooking healthy, tasty meals doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. Before the course, I lacked confidence in the kitchen, but now I feel much more capable. It has encouraged me to cook more at home, try new recipes, and rely less on convenience foods and takeaways. I also feel more aware of how to shop on a budget and make healthier food choices."
To find out more about Bags of Taste, they have a webinar you can watch here and I like this video exploring the challenges people on low incomes face when it comes to cooking at home. Alicia was also on BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme recently: recording here.
Good Food Local award
We're delighted that Gateshead Council received a "Contribution to Work Addressing Food Poverty" award at the launch of this year's Good Food Local North East report. Good Food Local is a programme led by Sustain that assesses how councils and partners are working to improve access to healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. This year's results are the culmination of three years of benchmarking, and showed Gateshead's overall score increasing from 51% to 65%, with particularly strong performance on tackling food poverty. Read more here and see how and why we scored here. While we're proud of this recognition, it really reflects the commitment, compassion and hard work of Gateshead's voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations. Thank you to everyone who is helping make good food more accessible across our borough - this achievement is for all of us!
As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions, ideas, things to share, or want to get more involved with Gateshead Food Partnership.
With very best wishes,
Nikki
