The Devon & Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA)

NEWSLETTER
February - March 2011
Spare Food is Share Food!
7 Whimple Street, Plymouth, Devon PL1 2DH Mobile: 07745819828 (text only) Email: saudigeoff@yahoo.co.uk Website: http://dcfa.webs.com

FOREWORD BY THE CHAIR DCFA NEWS

Dear Friends and Supporters,

F UNDRAISER. This is a time-consuming occupation but a
very important one for us. We are looking for someone
who has experience in this field of expertise to help us in a
May 2010... a dream. February 2011... a reality!
voluntary capacity. Interested? Please contact Geoff
(details at the top of the page).
All the talking, the planning and frustrations have borne
rd
fruit, as we started trading on Wednesday, 23 February
2011, albeit in a modest way to begin with! We’ve come
this far with patience and determination and it would be a
M ARJON FIELDWORK SUPERVISORS’ BRIEFING.
Marjon
current
invited
and
pity if all that groundwork became undone by us going too
prospective Field Work
fast! We have had to restrain our eagerness as we needed
Supervisors to their
to learn walk before we could run. Yes, we did fall over a
second Briefing on
couple of times, but we picked ourselves up, brushed th
Friday, 4 February
ourselves down and carried on.
2011. That meeting gave another opportunity for new
Supervisors to find out what is involved in having a UCP
My fellow Trustees have been working so very hard behind
Marjon Youth & Community student on placement, as well
the scenes and are to be applauded for their dedication.
as an opportunity for experienced Fieldwork Supervisors to
update themselves on the processes and procedures.
And all our necessary registration papers, insurance
Our DCFA Secretary, Geoff, attended and one of Co-opted
documentation, etc., is now in place... well, almost!
Members to our Board of Trustees, Hazel, also attended but
was representing Plymouth Community Homes.
We are so very grateful to the small volunteer team of
For further information please contact:
students from the Plymouth City College who helped us at
mhead@marjon.ac.uk
the Devonport Guildhall event and on our first trading day.
We are particularly grateful to Danielle JACKSON, their
Training Office, for all the help she has given.

We still have a lot to do so we must all be patient a little

DO YOU WISH TO BECOME A
while longer. FRIEND OF DCFA?
We hope you will continue to share this journey with us
and watch us grow, and grow! Go on-line, download the
Christine Application Form, complete the
Christine Reid details and submit it to Geoff.
Chair
DCFA Board of Trustees

The Devon & Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA) is a Private Company Limited by Guarantee.
Our Funder:
Registered Company Number: 07419679. Registered Charity Number: Pending

Members of :
NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations) ...And Voluntary Donations.
PTSC (The Plymouth Third Sector Consortium),
and The Small Charities Coalition.
S USTAINABLE FOOD FAYRE AT DEVONPORT GUILDHALL.
Devonport Guildhall was awash with stalls displaying
their wares and people milling about sampling goodies, on
th
Thursday, 17 February 2011.
Why was this? It was the launch of the new Plymouth Food
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Charter . This event was funded by the South West Food &
Drink Association. Approximately 150 people attended the
event. There were chefs preparing fine food, together with
the staff of Devonport Guildhall. There was a delivery of
organic food by boat, which had sailed down the River
Tamar to the event.
Tucked away in the corner and sharing a table was the
DCFA Display Stand. Decorated by Danielle JACKSON and
Student Volunteers from the Plymouth City College. Julia
2
POLLARD from WRAP and Eunice HALLIDAY a DCFA
Trustee, also helped out.
The theme was Apples and these were distributed to
curious customers! The location of our stall was not ideal,
but thanks to two Co-opted Members of our Board of
Trustees, Patrick and Gitty, who were busy networking,
offers Food Produce came pouring in to our Secretary!
Each little thing helps to promote the cause of DCFA.
Our especial thanks to Danielle and to her Students who
helped on the day.
Submitted by Christine REID, DCFA Chair
The picture below shows Polly FITZSIMMONS one of our
Student Volunteers from Plymouth City College...
Photograph courtesy Danielle JACKSON
THIS SPACE
COULD HAVE BEEN USED
TO PLACE
YOUR NOTICE!
Why not contact the Editor?
1 collect food whilst making a drop-offat Exter en route to
http://www.tasteofthewest.co.uk/content/sustainable-food-city-
plymouth.html
2
http://www.wrap.org.uk/
Contact the DCFA Newsletter Editor at DCFA... details at the top of Page 1.
DCFA PRESS RELEASE
P RESS RELEASE. Our Public Relations Officer, Alison SHAW
issued our second Press Release, in February 2011. Full
details are shown below:
Project commences trading in the South West
This exciting initiative begins trading today on Wednesday,
rd
23 February after nine months of planning and
preparation.
The Devon & Cornwall Food Association (DCFA) was formed
to provide good quality food to organisations working with
disadvantaged people within our communities. Every year
millions of tonnes of first class food ends up in landfill sites.
At the same time, even in today’s society, there are
thousands of men, women and children living in poverty in
our cities, towns and villages.
The DCFA plans eventually to become part of FareShare UK
which is a national charity supporting communities to
relieve food poverty, and in-date food will be collected
from the FareShare South West outlet at Bristol on a
regular basis.
The DCFA is a private company limited by guarantee and
has an elected Board of Trustees; and all of its Trustees are
very much hands-on within the organisation. DCFA is
currently in the process of becoming a Registered Charity
under the auspices of the Charity Commission.
DCFA intends to receive and distribute food produce on a
weekly basis initially during the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
at the Salvation Army Congress Hall, Armada Way in
Plymouth City Centre. DCFA is currently dealing with just
one major food producer at present: Robert Wiseman &
Sons Limited based at Pensilva in Cornwall.
Our Student Volunteers from the Plymouth City College, led
by their Training Officer, Ms. Danielle Jackson, will be
receiving the produce and distributing it out to the ten
charitable organisations in the Plymouth Postcode area that
have registered with the DCFA.
The students will also be assisting in the setting up of a
monitoring and recording system to keep track of all the
produce received and distributed.
A DCFA spokesperson said ...
“We are grateful and delighted with the response from both
Wiseman Dairies and the Plymouth City College, and the
interest and support we have received from right across the
South West. We are working closely with FareShare South
West, based at Bristol, and many other organisations,
including food distributors and producers.
The DCFA is urgently seeking funds to acquire permanent
storage facilities, cold storage and transport. We are
earnestly hoping that perhaps there is someone reading
this who could help us with this so we can become better
established with permanent premises. We are also looking
for a rota of drivers to drive to Bristol on a weekly basis to
Plymouth.
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We have received a generous grant from the Church Urban
Fund to cover some of our setting-up costs but continual
fundraising is vital. Again, if there is anyone reading this who is DO YOU WISH TO
admin- minded... you may be just the person we need to help
with our fund raising bids! This can be done day or night, any VOLUNTEER WITH DCFA?
place... so long as you have access to a computer!“
If you can help in any way, please get in touch with our
Company Secretary, Geoff Read, by telephoning 07745819828
or by emailing him on: saudigeoff@yahoo.co.uk Go on-line, download the
If you are interested in finding out more about our
Application Form, complete the
charitable organisation and its aims, please visit our website details and submit it to Geoff.
at http://dcfa.webs.com/

To find out more about FareShare UK, please visit

www.fareshare.org.uk DCFA MEETINGS
Patrick HUDSON and Andy HAWKINS doing something
useful at last... unloading the very first delivery of milk from
Robert Wisemans & Sons based at Pensilva, Cornwall.
M ARCH 2011. Our next Board Meeting will be held at
st
10.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 1 March 2011 in the
Tapisers Room at The Old Deanery in Exeter. Any
suggested items for discussion should be sent to the
Secretary (contact details at the foot of the page).

F UTURE MEETINGS. All future meetings will be

Picture courtesy Christine REID
Almost 300 litres of milk received and distributed to
nine charitable groups throughout the Plymouth
postcode area. Each
group will greatly
benefit from this. If
DCFA continues at this
rate, it will result in a
diversion of around 15
tonnes of milk a year
from landfill / low-
grade use and be a
boost to recipient organisations of around £15,000
in savings per year. If that’s not something to jump
up and down about I don’t know what is!
Contributed by Patrick HUDSON
scheduled for 10.30 a.m. but are subject to change at
short notice.
th
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
(Please note that this meeting is one week later than normally scheduled
and will start at 11.30 a.m. and not 10.30 as usual).
- General Board Meeting (Truro)
rd
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
th
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
th
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
nd
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
- General Board Meeting (Plymouth)
th
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
- Annual General Meeting (Plymouth
M AY 2011 MEETING. Catherine Street Baptist Church
will not be available to us for our meeting on
rd
Tuesday, 3 May 2011. This meeting will therefore be held
in the Theatre Royal by kind permission of their
Management.
A NNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2011. Our AGM will be
th
held on Tuesday, 8 November 2011 and we’re already
looking for one or two Guest Speakers. Can you help or do
you know someone that can? Please contact Geoff (details
at the top of Page 1).

Contact the DCFA Newsletter Editor at DCFA... details at the top of Page 1.
3
 WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?
DO YOU WISH TO BECOME A An article by Hazel ALEXANDER...
a Co-opted Member to the DCFA Board of
FRIEND OF DCFA? Trustees

Go on-line, download the I T’S AT THIS TIME OF YEAR that many of us are thinking
about our waist.
Application Form, complete the This is usually because the turkey and all the delicious seasonal
trimmings have well and truly come home to roost and have
details and submit it to Geoff. perched themselves very firmly anywhere from our ribs down!
But instead... I’d like you to think a little bit about waste!
Often when manufacturers produce or package foods ready for
shops and supermarkets there’s a surplus and currently this
EVERYONE DESERVES THEIR FARESHARE! perfectly good food goes to landfill and this is happening whilst
An article by Alison SHAW... a DCFA Trustee local organisations are trying to provide food for people in
difficult circumstances. DCFA wants to get this food to those
organisations, but to do it, we will need your help!
If you have some time to help us share this spare food out to
these organisations we’d love to hear from you! There are a
variety of tasks you can get involved with, just get in touch with
Geoff (contact details at the top of Page 1) and we can tell you
T HIS banner greeted us recently when a group from the
DCFA visited FareShare South West at Bristol to see how
their operation worked and how we might become part of it.
a bit more about us and what we’re hoping to do.
Meanwhile, I’m off to work out how many calories
During our morning’s visit we were warmly welcomed by volunteering burns an hour!
FareShare SW’s employed workers, Pete and Jacqui, and by the
numerous volunteers of whom there are around 40 or so.
Many of the volunteers come from the organisations that are
helped with food supplies and an important part of the
WOULD YOUR ORGANISATION
Fareshare ethos is that there are regular meetings with BENEFIT FROM A
volunteers and the support of an NHS Forensic Mental Heath
Worker. The Big Issue played an important part in advertising TALK & POWERPOINT
for volunteers when FareShare SW opened its doors in October
2007. PRESENTATION?
Fareshare SW provides a community food network with
cookery projects and works with 15 schools and the University
of the West of England. It delivers to 34 groups who each pay
Are you a school, a charity, a faith
an annual membership subscription based on their numbers. group or some other organisation
Groups such as church projects, day centres and night centres
all benefit. needing to know more about
Food comes into FareShare SW from a variety of sources...
Sainsburys and Nestle being big suppliers of surplus food. Fresh DCFA?
food provides the backbone with ready meals and pasta, rice,
and cook-in-sauces too.
We will come to you and five a
We were all astounded by the numbers catered for... in brief talk and PowerPoint
November 2010, 29 tonnes of food were collected and 33
tonnes delivered... which equates to 78,000 meals! Presentation to tell you
When those figures are set against the statistic that in the UK
over four million people cannot afford to eat a healthy diet, it
about our work.
shows just how essential the work of FareShare nationally, and Just contact Geoff...
organisations such as the DCFA, really are.
FareShare SW has contacts far and wide... they are about to contact details at
begin deliveries to Weston-Super-Mare and they receive
regular donations from a monastery in Camarthen!
the top of Page 1.
We were pleased to receive lots of advice that’ll help with our
work in Devon and Cornwall and we look forward to regular Book now!
visits to FareShare South West in Bristol in the future.

Contact the DCFA Newsletter Editor at DCFA... details at the top of Page 1.
4
 TRAINING & COURSES OTHER NEWS

T HE LAST THING OUR HUNGRY WORLD NEEDS IS MORE

FOOD! By Fred Pearce. This article was published on
th
the Mail On-line on Sunday, 6 February 2011:

'Every time there is a famine, it turns out later that someone,

E AST CORNWALL COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICES

(ECCVS) is one of three organisations that employ an
Inter-Link Development Officer. Inter-Link Cornwall is a
usually just down the road, was hoarding food for sale,' said
Fred PEARCE.
Government chief scientist Sir John
project which is designed to link members of community- BEDDINGTON calls it the perfect
based groups with each other and with workers from storm. Soaring world population,
statutory agencies to help them to work together, and coupled with climate change, is set to
therefore give a better service to the members of their create a world food crisis and leave
communities. Inter-Link Officers arrange locality meetings, billions starving.
training events and produce a newsletter to enable 'We are at a unique moment in
information to be distributed to its members. Our DCFA history,' he said recently, while
Secretary, Geoff, recently attended one such Locality launching a report from his
Meeting in Liskeard and found it ideal for networking. Government think-tank, Foresight.
For more information please contact Grayburn OWEN at: The Foresight project, Global Food &
g.owen@eccvs.org.uk Farming Futures, says only a
revolution in the way the world grows

S OCIAL ENTERPRISE WORKSHOPS AND ONE-TO-ONE

BUSINESS ADVICE CLINICS. These workshops and clinics
are being offered FREE by Co-active Ltd.
its food can save us. Clearly, David
CAMERON'S top boffin wants to kick-start that revolution.
The world's population will reach seven billion this year and may peak at
nine billion by mid-century. There are plenty of things wrong with the
world's food system. But the amount of food it produces isn't one of them.
Plymouth advice clinics: We already grow enough food to nourish nine billion people, probably
Book a one-hour slot for a clinic between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.: 15billion people, in fact, for we eat only about one third of those crops.
Much of the global harvest feeds livestock... an inefficient route for
Tuesday, 8th March 2011 delivering our nutrition, since it takes eight calories of grain to produce
one calorie of meat.
Plenty more is diverted to make biofuels. An African could live for a year
For more details and to book your place please contact:
on the corn needed to fill one gas-guzzling SUV fuel tank with ethanol.
Marie WHITE That's not all. In the developing world, an estimated 30% of the harvest
Telephone: 0845 519 5759 is eaten by rats and insects, or rots in grain silos. We in the First World
(9.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays) are better at preventing losses, but then we throw about 25% our food
away, uneaten.
The truth is that the world's farmers could probably double the amount
Business Services of food they grow... using GM crops and other technologies... and still
PO Box 36 people would go hungry. This is ultimately not about production or
Newton Abbot TQ13 0WP about human numbers, it is about poverty.
Every time there’s a famine, it turns out later that someone, usually just
down the road, was hoarding food for sale. The problem is that the
Co-active Ltd. Registered in England hungry families didn't have the cash to buy it.
(company registration no. 2050566) Every few years we get news reports that there are only so many days'
Registered office: supply of grain in the world's warehouses. If the warehouses are full,
prices fall and farmers stop producing. When they start to empty, prices
26-28 Southernhay East,
rise, farmers start planting and soon the warehouses are full again.
Exeter EX1 1NS BEDDINGTON'S perfect storm is the operation of a perfect market. Does
http://www.co-active.org.uk this mis-diagnosis matter? Even if we grow enough food, surely growing
more can't hurt.
Well, yes, it does matter. Because BEDDINGTON'S planned revolution
stands a good chance of making the poor poorer. It could mean we have
DO YOU WISH TO BECOME A both more food and more famines. This is because most of the methods
he suggests to increase food production are about big farms and big
FRIEND OF DCFA? investment.
Government chief scientist Sir John BEDDINGTON'S planned revolution
could mean we have both more food and more famines.
Go on-line, download the Application BEDDINGTON wants to plough up vast tracts of African cattle pastures and
amalgamate the smallholdings of millions of peasant farmers to create
Form, complete the details giant, high-tech farms. His blueprint will take land away from the rural
poor.
and submit it to Geoff. Last month, I watched this scenario playing out on the edge of the Sahara
desert in Mali. The government there has recruited foreign experts to help
it invest in agriculture. Western aid agencies are building irrigation projects
to boost production of rice.

Contact the DCFA Newsletter Editor at DCFA... details at the top of Page 1.
5
Libya's Colonel GADDAFI, Mali's biggest sugar daddy, has just dug a 25-mile
canal to irrigate an area of dry scrub three times the size of the Isle of
Wight.
The trouble is that these projects will take water out of the River Niger. WOULD YOUR ORGANISATION
They will empty fertile wet pastures just downstream, where one million of
Mali's poorest people currently live by catching fish and grazing their
cattle. They fear the plans will create desert.
BENEFIT FROM A
Most of the rice from the new fields will go to feed Libyans. Meanwhile,
the poor of the Niger wetlands are likely to join the Al-Qaeda groups
TALK & POWERPOINT
already penetrating the country's desert borders.
BEDDINGTON is right that farming needs investment. But it has to be the
PRESENTATION?
right investment. Perhaps he should have a word with another of the
Government's scientific advisers, Professor Robert WATSON, the real
Whitehall food expert.
He is currently chief scientist at the Department for Environment Food and Are you a school, a charity, a faith
Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Three years ago he chaired an international report
on the future of the world's farming. group or some other organisation
In the developing world, an estimated 30% of the harvest is eaten by rats
and insects, or rots in grain silos. needing to know more about
WATSON reached rather different conclusions from BEDDINGTON.
He said African smallholder farmers should be backed, not stripped of their DCFA?
land; that local knowledge of crops would often work better than high-tech
methods; and that fighting poverty was the key to feeding the world.
WATSON told me: 'It's not a technical challenge; it's a rural development
We will come to you and five a
challenge. Small farmers will remain the predominant producers. The
question is how to help them.'
brief talk and PowerPoint
BEDDINGTON sees the spread of Western farming methods and giant food
and seed companies as the solution to the food problem.
Presentation to tell you
WATSON sees it as part of the problem. BEDDINGTON'S report says: 'We
need to make agriculture more efficient.'
about our work.
But more efficient for whom? For agribusiness and its bottom line? Or for
farmers and consumers? In an age where the smart investment banks are Just contact Geoff...
putting their cash into biofuels rather than bread, and where large
corporations are buying farms across the developing world to grow cotton contact details at
for cash rather than food for people, the two are not the same thing.
BEDDINGTON'S report chastises countries such as India, which imposed the top of Page 1.
bans on food exports during the food price crisis in early 2008 in an effort
to keep their people fed.
He blames them for undoubtedly exacerbating the crisis, and says such
Book now!
protectionist actions should be banned. He has no such strictures for the
speculators who caused the soaring prices.
Surely if we've learned anything over the past couple of years, it is that
unbridled markets can bring chaos, and speculators are a menace. It was
bad enough letting the financial markets run riot. But if the food markets
run riot we will have empty bellies as well as empty pockets.

Peoplequake by Fred PEARCE, is published by Eden Project

Books at £8.99.
To order your copy at £8.49 with free p&p, call The Review
Bookstore on 08451550713 or visit www.MailLife.co.uk/Books.

Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353810/Beddingtons-perfect-
storm-Last-thing-hungry-world-needs-food.html#ixzz1DUxiHhcr

Contributed by Andy HAWKINS, DCFA Trustee

The Devon &Cornwall Food Association Ltd (DCFA) is a Private Company Limited by Guarantee.
Registered Company Number: 07419679. Registered Charity Number: Pending.
Our Funder:
Members of :
NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations)
PTSC The Plymouth Third Sector Consortium),
And The Small Charities Coalition. ....And Voluntary Donations...

...And Voluntary Donations.

Contact the DCFA Newsletter Editor at DCFA... details at the top of Page 1.
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