Abertay University helps roll-out Sustainable Food Places partnership

Abertay University helps roll out Sustainable Food Places partnership

Abertay University is to help roll-out a local cross-sector food partnership in Dundee after the city was awarded funding by Nourish Scotland.

Nourish Scotland is an NGO which works on food policy and practice, that will work to support the creation of a food partnership that aims to create a more sustainable local food system.

The Sustainable Food Places approach is about working across all aspects of the food system to solve some of today’s most pressing social, environmental, and economic issues.

The food partnership involves all those in the food system, from local authorities and public bodies through to growers and food businesses to tackle wide range of food issues.

Food insecurity, growing and food production and developing a sustainable food economy are just some of the issues the partnership aims to address.

Viv Colle, Events Lead at Abertay University, identified a wide local interest in Dundee becoming one of the UK’s Sustainable Food Places and worked to secure support to pursue this.

To support the project, 11 groups of third year Marketing and Business Management students have spent the last four months researching a wide range of sustainable food topics including food policy, food mapping, healthy food and zero waste to see where improvements can be made.

The students will present their findings at a special online food summit on Thursday 29^th of April.

Professor Mohamed Branine, Dean of the School of Business, Law and Social Sciences said: “This has been a fantastic project for our students to be involved in and one that is hugely important to the future of Dundee and Scotland, at a time when we must all play our part in creating a more sustainable society.

“Through our business and marketing degree programmes, all of our students get exposure to real-world projects like this, ensuring they graduate from the University not just with academic expertise, but with the level of hands-on experience that employers are looking for.”

Viv Colle added: “I have been very impressed with the interest and effort of the students.

“I am really looking forward to hearing their findings and using them to inform the process of Dundee becoming one of the growing number of Sustainable Food Places in Scotland.” 

Tom Andrews, Director of the UK Sustainable Food Places programme said: “We are really excited to be starting this new phase of the programme, which will see the creation of food partnerships across Scotland.

 “As a world-class food producing nation with pioneering national policy and strategy, Scotland is the perfect place for these new partnerships to continue to prove just what is possible in creating healthy, prosperous and sustainable local food systems.”

Simon Kenton-Lake, leading the work at Nourish Scotland added: “We have an ambition to see a food partnership in every local authority in Scotland, to create a network that would form the foundation for developing the vision, infrastructure and action needed to make Scotland’s food system fit for future generations.

  “The development of integrated, sustainable and localised food systems must form an intrinsic part of Scotland’s ambitious climate targets and commitment to the Good Food Nation Bill,  introducing the right to food into Scottish law."