Rosie Boycott announces new London Food Board line-up

Rosie Boycott, chair of London Food Board, today announced a new line-up of food experts who will work to inform the development of programmes to improve Londoners’ access to healthy food, boost the economic vibrancy of the food sector and reduce the food system’s impact on the environment.

The new line-up represents the top echelons of food knowledge with a diverse range of private, public, charity and academic backgrounds. They include Tim Smith, Chief Executive of Food Standards Agency, Judith Batchelar, Director of Sainsbury’s brand and Tim Lang, Professor of food policy at City University. The newly formed London Food Board Executive group and a larger Food Board will advise on the development of a new food strategy implementation plan for the Greater London Authority due to be published later this year.

Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food Board, said: ‘I am absolutely thrilled to announce this stellar line up of food experts. I want to use their combined experience to build on the success of existing projects and develop effective solutions to help take on the food challenges that London faces. We need to ensure that all Londoners have access to fresh, high quality food and that projects such as the 2012 Games leave a lasting legacy not just for sport but for setting new standards for food and catering.

‘Positive changes to our food system can also play an important role in reducing London's carbon emissions and support a new generation of green fingered jobs and skills which can have a role to play in helping London to emerge from current economic uncertainties.

‘I want to see the London Food Board become the pre-eminent experts on how we feed cities in the 21st century.’

The London Food Board Executive Group members are:

• Rosie Boycott – Chair of London Food Board;
• Kath Dalmeny – Policy Director, Sustain;
• David Russell – Founder, Russell Partnership;
• David Smith – Director of Markets, City of London Corporation;
• Gill Moffett – Public Health Manager, Regional Public Health Group;
• Stephen Dowbiggin – College Principal and Chief Executive, Capel Manor College;
• Tim Smith – Chief Executive, Food Standards Agency;
• Helen Evans – Communications Manager, Covent Garden Market Authority;
• Claire Pritchard – Director, Greenwich Cooperative Development Agency;
• Judith Batchelar – Director of Sainsbury’s Brand, Sainsbury’s;
• Tim Lang – Professor of Food Policy, City University.

The Executive Group will be joined on the London Food Board by the following food experts:

• Anne Dolamore, Sustain
• David Meller, FareShare
• Krys Zazada, National Association of British Market Authorities
• Gerry Clinton, London Borough of Havering
• Sara Jayne Staines, Institute of Culinary Arts
• Jenny Morris, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
• Olga Astiniatos, Olive Grows
• Tom Beeston, Eat England
• Anna Francis, Bio-Regional
• Cyrus Todiwala, Café Spice Namaste
• Eric Samuel MBE, Community Food Enterprise
• Sophie Tranchell, Divine Chocolate
• Jenny Bates, Friends of the Earth
• Cheryl Cohen, London Farmers' Markets
• Emma Hockridge, Soil Association
• Julie Brown, Growing Communities
• Stephanie Wood, School Food Matters
• William Hudson, East Anglia Food Link
• Geetie Singh, Duke of Cambridge Organic Pub

The London Food Board Executive Group will meet quarterly and the wider London Food Board will meet twice a year. Rosie Boycott is appointed as chair of London Food Board by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

ENDS

1. London Food works to develop activities and policies which support a sustainable food system in the capital. This includes:

• Reducing the environmental impact of London's food chain;
• Supporting a vibrant food economy, especially through education and skills development and enhancing the status of food workers;
• Improving Londoners' health via the food they eat and reducing health inequalities;
• Improving access to food (particularly through planning and regeneration) and celebrating London's culinary cultural and ethnic diversity;
• Developing London's food security.

2. Current Food Board projects include:

• The Good Food For London project providing over 1000 catering and procurement staff in education and social care with training on how to supply healthy, nutritious and sustainable food in the public sector;
• Capital Growth, which has established over 400 new community food growing spaces throughout London, towards its target of 2,012 spaces by 2012;
• Good Food on the Public Plate, which increases the amount of sustainable food in London's public sector and which has led to more than £285,000 worth of addition sustainable food being purchased and eaten in London each year;
• Business Development Mangers in London wholesale markets which increase the amount of healthy sustainable food supplied into London, benefiting producers, wholesalers, and customers alike;
• The Board will also seek to work in partnership with statutory, voluntary and the private sectors to catalyse change in London's food system to make it healthier and more sustainable.

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For non-media enquiries please call the Public Liaison Unit on 020 7983 4100.