It is not very often that you get approached by a group offering you support and funds to carry out your work - especially at such a difficult time for the third sector. But, that is exactly what happened when Chris Smith of Foodlink NW approached Kindling in the summer offering us the opportunity to join it's Local Food Fund bid.
At the time there was no guarantee the bid would be successful and so we put the opportunity to the back of our minds, but three weeks ago, we received a phone call confirming the bid had been successful.
Foodlink NW were so impressed with what we had been able to do in Manchester with very little money that they are funding two part-time FeedingManchester co-ordinators for the next two years.
FeedingManchester has become a unique resource for a diverse range of sustainable food projects, groups and independent businesses in Greater Manchester, meeting up three times a year, with a beautifully designed website to promote all the work going on in the city.
The funding will allow us to find even more groups to populate the website's extensive database of over three hundred entries, encourage more people to attend our FeedingManchester gatherings but crucially promote local and sustainable food to a wider audience.
One of the workers first tasks will be to re-map the sector and create a sustainable food charter for the City based on our adopted definition of sustainable food. Not only will this allow FeedingManchester to go from strength to strength, but also it puts us at the heart of a regional partnership, enabling local and sustainable food enterprises from across the Northwest to connect to local people.
Chris said “I came across Kindling and the Feeding Manchester project through Twitter, liked what I saw on-line and decided to make direct contact in order to explore the potential to work together. It is a great example of how Foodlink works by forging people to people contact and building associations to get things done. As the Foodlink programme progresses we expect to involve groups from all the other Northwest Counties and in this way clarion the local and sustainable food message with a more effective voice.”
And if that wasn't amazing enough we have just secured funding from Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to support other sustainable food communities across the country to adopt our website and partnership approach, so we could soon be seeing FeedingLeeds or FeedingKirkless.
If you are interested in working for FeedingManchester, please send your CV and a covering letter explaining why you would like to work with us, to The Kindling Trust by 12 noon on Monday 9th January.
The job description can be downloaded from the FoodLinks NW website.
A massive thank you to the Local Food Fund, FoodLink NW and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation for seeing the potential in us and FeedingManchester.