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Sheffield is pioneering an ambitious three-year ‘food plan' aimed at improving public health, promoting local produce and underlining the importance of food to the local economy, says Chris Shaw If you're taking a break and just reading this article in your lunch hour, you may be interested to hear about what we're doing in Sheffield to improve the quality of life for everyone in our city. It might often be overlooked as part of a local authority's general responsibility, but food is really the only product we buy and create that becomes part of us. Chris Shaw: ‘We are literally what we eat'. We are, literally, what we eat. Food is worth £1bn to Sheffield's economy. We have a large and diverse food business sector in the city, with some 1,387 restaurants, cafés, takeaways and pubs serving food. Add to this 111 food retailers and 57 food manufacturers. Sheffield also has a notable primary food business sector with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (DEFRA) agricultural census for 2009, recording a total of 401 small and large farm holdings. The city plays a very active role in the public heath agenda, working to reduce health inequalities, give children the best-possible start in life, and improve access to a healthy diet, and these are all issues we have been thinking about for some time in light of the imminent shift of the public health mantle from the NHS to local authorities. However, what we also realised very early on was that a purely health-based ‘food plan' would miss out on other opportunities to improve the overall ‘food system' in the city, and we began developing a city-wide food plan with four main strands covering health, environment, economy and community. The cherry on top of all this has been the success of our Sheffield Food Festival, which we have now organised for two years as a way of taking positive messages on to the streets, and mobilising the energy and enthusiasm of local organisations across the food sector. We set out to differentiate ourselves from other festivals, which are often just gourmet food extravaganzas. There was plenty of that, but we also wove in healthy eating and environmental messages along with support for local growers and produce. We brought the sights, sounds and smells of food to the people of Sheffield, as well as attracting 40,000 visitors from outside the city. The first Sheffield Food Festival saw Sheffield University and local ice cream producer Our Cow Molly set a new Guinness world record for the fastest time making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. This year's event witnessed ‘garden gorillas', promoting the use of unexpected open spaces to grow food, and we also had a city centre farmyard where people could learn how to milk a cow. The festival has provided a forum for the key messages of the food plan. It gives people something to talk about and gets them interested in thinking about food. It enjoys great support from the local media, and promotes ‘food heroes' from local business – such as the bakery which works with students with learning disabilities. All these ingredients have been instrumental in bringing the food plan to life for the people of Sheffield. Throughout the whole process of putting together the plan, partnership has been vitally important. We knew from the outset that the involvement of private, voluntary and other public sector partners was key to making the aims of the plan a reality which would deliver genuine improvements. It is not just a piece of abstract policy handed down from an ivory tower at the town hall. It has been an initiative built from the ground up by people involved in food businesses, food growing and food production and consumption. We have a very robust voluntary food sector in the city, with many people already working passionately to improve the quality and availability of good food. At times, we have had some difficult conversations with our partners, and along the way, there has sometimes been some fairly robust and challenging dialogue. Above all, though, what has emerged is a picture of how vitally important food is to Sheffield, and how it is woven into the fabric of people's lives, from their physical health to their mental wellbeing, in their work and in their businesses. Obviously, as a council, we can't do everything, but what we can do is perform an enabling role, putting knowledge, passion and resources together from different organisations to improve the food system in the city. And the food plan had been a catalyst to make things happen. Our consultation with partners has had a major say on the final shape of the plan and we now hope to increase the number of community-growing spaces within the city, and encourage more people to grow food in their gardens, window boxes or homes. We already have a long waiting list for allotments, and over the next three years, we hope to nurture a robust fresh food growing culture across the city. Another area where our partners have had a major influence has been in encouraging the promotion and support for local food producers. This has already led to the creation of a ‘Sheffield Food' brand within the city to give consumers greater clarity on the provenance of ‘local' food, which many felt was often an overused and sometimes-inaccurate label. Over the next three years, we now hope to build the framework for a city-wide ‘food system' which can make Sheffield more resilient to shocks including rising fuel costs and extreme weather events such as floods and snow. Even in the current financial climate, we are able to carry out ground-breaking ideas by harnessing the huge enthusiasm and passion there is for food in the city already, and by developing initiatives in other areas such as our catering contracts, our work with businesses and our waste management services. Taking city-wide initiatives on food waste may offer significant opportunities, and we are already looking at ways in which we might capitalise on this with our strategic waste partner. The whole system approach allows us to look at an issue holistically and then develop it in a number different ways and, so far, the signs are looking very positive. As one visitor to the Sheffield Food Festival said: ‘I would never have expected this in Sheffield. I've tasted things I would never have tried before, got some great new recipes, and come away with loads to think about. ‘Who knows, I might even be digging up a corner of my lawn to grow some lettuces!' You can't ask for more than that. So, we will report back on how we get on – and in the meantime, enjoy your lunch. Chris Shaw is director of health improvement at Sheffield City Council.

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Food for thought

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