Monday, 5 December 2022
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Nearly half of Brits feel sense of hopelessness about rising food costs, but aren’t aware of available support
New research from Co-op reveals a third of those impacted by the rising cost of living are turning to food charities more often.
With household bills on the rise, an independent survey commissioned by the ethical convenience retailer revealed that almost a half of Britons (48%) feel a sense of hopelessness when thinking about the cost of food.
The increasing demand on food banks has been widely reported on in recent months, as the pressure of rising food cost increases. The independent study of 2,000 Britons showed the need for alternative sustainable solutions, as the survey suggests there's a stigma around the use of food banks, which continues to be a barrier.
Of those most impacted and turning to food banks, over half (56%) aren’t aware of alternative, sustainable and dignified food projects which can help improve household finances.
As part of its mission to ensure communities and members have better access to sustainable food solutions, Co-op has announced a major new partnership with Your Local Pantry - a low-cost food project and community hub. The partnership, funded by Co-op Members, will see the Your Local Pantry network triple within three years from 75 to 225 Pantries across the UK, with the addition of 150 new Pantries.
To date, Your Local Pantry has helped tens of thousands of households strengthen their community, improve finances and access more affordable food as well as reduce isolation and improve mental health. In fact, 76% of those who have benefited from access to Your Local Pantry membership have felt that it's been beneficial for their mental health.
The network, backed by the charity Church Action on Poverty, has expanded rapidly since the first Pantry was opened by Stockport Homes Group in 2013, accelerating throughout the recent global pandemic, as communities sought sustainable responses to the financial impact of the lockdowns.
Through the new partnership, Co-op and Your Local Pantry aim to support over 32,000 households over the next three years, saving Local Pantry members nearly £5million on shopping bills, up to £1,000 a year for each Pantry user. Co-op will raise awareness of affordable community solutions to food initiatives, helping to tackle household finances as costs continue to increase.
Unlike a food bank, Pantries are open to all and work like any other grocery store, in that members choose the food they want from the shelves. Members pay a few pounds per shop and in return can choose groceries worth many times more than that amount.
The partnership is just one of the initiatives launched by Co-op to support its customers, colleagues and members access more affordable food and manage household budgets. Earlier this year, Co-op invested £37M to lower the price of the 120 most frequently purchased products, and locked in these low prices until the New Year.
Since 2016, Co-op members have raised £117 million for local communities, including funding for over 30,000 local community projects supporting an estimated 7M people across the UK throughout the Co-op’s Local Community Fund.
Rebecca Birkbeck, Director of Community and Membership Participation said: “At Co-op, we believe everyone should be able to access to good quality food. It's thanks to our members we're able to support this innovative partnership with Your Local Pantry, plus many other initiatives, like our investment grow Hubbub’s Community Fridge network.
"We're obviously very proud to be continuing to support Your Local Pantry, which offers communities a long-term, sustainable solution to help manage their household finances and learn new skills. For all at Co-op, this feels like a real step in the right direction to ensure fairer access to food for all.”
James Henderson, Your Local Pantry Network Development Coordinator, added: “Pantries are fantastic places. They bring people together around food, soften the impact of high living costs, and strengthen the power and potential of neighbourhoods.
"Communities have long wanted to improve food security while upholding dignity, choice and hope, and Pantries are a proven win-win solution. We're really excited to be teaming up with the Co-op, so another 150 neighbourhoods can open Pantries of their own."
Robots roll-out in Yorkshire as Co-op and Starship Technologies bring autonomous food delivery to Leeds in time for Christmas
The service will be available to 20,000 residents initially in the Adel and Tinshill area of Leeds, with groceries picked fresh in local Co-op stores on Spen Lane (Tinshill) and Otley Road (Adel) for delivery quickly and conveniently within the community.
Orders are made via the Starship food delivery app, available for download on iOS and Android with Leeds residents able to choose from a range of grocery items, schedule their delivery, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent.
Customers can order their delivery to arrive in under an hour and watch the robot travel in real-time via an interactive map. Customers receive an alert when the robot arrives, and can meet and unlock it via the app.
With a delivery fee starting at just 99p, the robots have become a much-loved presence across a number of communities. The expansion in the North of England for the first time follows the successful introduction of autonomous deliveries in Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton, Cambourne, and most recently Cambridge. Since the robots were first introduced into the UK, an estimated 1.1 million miles of car journeys have been saved with a total 445-tonne reduction in CO2 emissions.
Starship’s robots are powered with renewable electricity, with an average delivery for a robot consuming as little energy as boiling a kettle to make one cup of tea, making them a more sustainable and affordable way to get groceries delivered to your own door.
Chris Conway, eCommerce Director, at the Co-op, said: “Co-op is committed to exploring new and innovative ways to increase access to its products and services. Our members and customers lead busy lives and so ease, speed and convenience is a cornerstone of our approach. Co-op stores are well placed to provide quick home deliveries in communities with products picked fresh in our local stores, whether that is a full grocery shop or for those last-minute top-ups, treats for evenings at home or forgotten items. We're delighted to be expanding into Yorkshire to provide flexible, quick and convenient options online for shoppers in our communities.”
Councillor Helen Hayden, Leeds City Council’s executive member for infrastructure and climate, said: “As a council we're firmly committed to delivering alternative, sustainable methods of travel to help reach our target of becoming net-zero by 2030. We're trying to reduce the number of short journeys made by car, including those made by delivery vehicles. I’m really excited by the launch of this pilot, which will be trialled for three months in north-west Leeds.
“Since the pandemic, we've seen a huge increase in the number of home deliveries. This pilot will be transformative and provide an alternative home delivery provision which will particularly benefit residents with mobility problems or those facing other challenges which make accessing local facilities difficult. I'd encourage residents in Adel and Tinshill to feedback their thoughts on the delivery robots during the pilot by visiting the council’s survey at starshipleeds.commonplace.is.”
Alastair Westgarth, CEO at Starship Technologies, added: “We are delighted to bring the benefits of autonomous delivery to residents in Leeds. This is our first significant expansion to the north of England, and we are confident the robots will make a positive impact in terms of actively reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions, while also providing ease and convenience for local communities.
"Our robots have been widely welcomed as part of the community in all the areas we operate, and we're confident they'll be equally embraced in Leeds. We're looking forward to working closely with Leeds City Council and the Co-op and hope to further expand our service to more parts of Leeds and the wider Yorkshire region in the near future.”
The robots are battery operated, lightweight and travel at the speed of a pedestrian (no faster than 4mph). They use a combination of sensors, AI, and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around obstacles, while computer vision-based navigation helps them map their environment to the nearest inch.
Starship, which was created by the co-founders of communications system Skype in 2014, currently operates a fully commercial service in five countries around the globe and a number of towns and cities in the UK in partnership with Co-op including Milton Keynes; Bedford; Northampton; Cambridge and, now Leeds. Residents in all of these UK towns and cities can also expect to see Starship’s robots celebrating Christmas in the coming weeks, with the robots dressed as reindeer while making deliveries to excited families.
Since launching commercial deliveries in 2018, Starship’s robots have safely completed more than four million deliveries around the world with more and more people using the service to save time and fit shopping around their busy lives. Globally, the robots undertake 140,000 road crossings every day.
Co-op has expanded its online offer at pace with its stores across the country well placed in the heart of local communities to serve shoppers. A key part of its strategy is to develop its ecommerce offer using its store footprint to provide 'quick convenience' locally, with products picked fresh in local Co-op stores which act as micro-distribution hubs in the community - delivering quality and value conveniently through its online grocery delivery partnerships and, its own online shop: shop.coop.co.uk.
((Image courtesy of OpenClipart-Vectors and Pixabay)
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Friday, 2 December 2022
Bird Flu Updates
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was confirmed in commercial housed poultry on 12 October 2022 near Sleaford, North Kesteven, Lincolnshire (AIV 2022/113). Following successful completion of disease control activity and surveillance in the zone, the protection zone has ended and the area that formed that protection zone becomes part of the surveillance zone.
Further Update 1 December
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was confirmed in other captive birds on 1 December 2022 at a premises near Dorchester, West Dorset, Dorset (AIV 2022/221). A 3km Captive Bird (Monitoring) Controlled Zone has been declared around the premises. All birds will be humanely culled.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was confirmed in commercial poultry at the following premises:
near Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk, Suffolk (AIV 2022/72)
near Honington, West Suffolk, Suffolk (AIV 2022/74)
second premises near Honington, West Suffolk, Suffolk (AIV 2022/77)
second premises near Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk, Suffolk (AIV 2022/85)
Following successful completion of disease control activity and surveillance in the zone, the 10km surveillance zones have been revoked.
For further information or advice please visit https://www.gov.uk/environment.
(Image courtesy of Clker-Free-Vector-Images and Pixabay)
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Vegan Society launches baby and toddler version of its VEG 1 supplement
Aimed at those aged six months to four years, one bottle contains around 150 servings, about five months' worth, and comes with a handy syringe for dosage accuracy, making it even easier than ever to ensure your little ones start their day the right way, every day.
The launch comes as more people are choosing to raise their children vegan or are enjoying a predominantly plant-based diet. In 2021, a BBC Good Food survey looking into the eating habits of 1,004 children, found nearly 60% either followed a vegan or vegetarian diet, or would like to. Meanwhile, earlier this year, a report from The Vegan Society revealed 69% of UK parents and guardians support schools increasing the number of nutritionally balanced vegan food options on offer.
VEG 1 Baby and Toddler combines the nutrients essential to its target age group – vitamin A, C and D – with nutrients recommended for a vegan diet – vitamin B12, iodine and selenium.
One dose of VEG 1 Baby and Toddler provides EU Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) of:
Vitamin B12 (5μg -200%)
Vitamin A (400μg – 50%)
Vitamin C (30mg – 37%)
Vitamin D (10ug – 200%)
Iodine (50ug – 33%)
Selenium (10ug – 18%)
Bethany Dandy, Business Development and Marketing Officer at The Vegan Society, says: “This is a hugely exciting day for us, VEG 1 Baby and Toddler has been in the works for a long time so it’s great to finally see the finished product on shelves and to be able to offer it to vegan parents and caregivers everywhere.
"We know how vital it is for vegan babies and children to have everything they need to grow up healthy and strong. That’s why we’ve worked closely with Angharad Banner, an NHS Children’s Dietitian, to ensure it includes everything our mini vegans need. We couldn’t be prouder of the end product!”
Angharad Banner added: “All children should take a vitamin supplement containing vitamins A, C and D until they are five-years-old.
"But there are limited options for babies and children on a vegan diet as the most common source of vitamin D, which is essential for helping absorb calcium for strong bones and teeth, is from sheep’s wool.
"A vegan supplement that also contains vitamin B12 is useful as it takes away the need to source it from specific fortified foods, making VEG 1 Baby and Toddler a very convenient one stop shop for parents, I’ll be recommending it to everyone!”
Other nutrients included in the supplement are:
Vitamin A - for immune system development, eyesight, and healthy skin.
Vitamin C - for overall health, the immune system and to aid iron absorption.
Iodine - for brain and neurological development.
Selenium - for thyroid metabolism.
While Baby VEG 1 includes the harder to get, key nutrients, it's very important for parents to ensure they include plenty of iron, calcium and protein rich foods in their child's diet, along with essential Omega 3 fats which are found in some seeds and rapeseed oil and easily incorporated into meals.
Interested in giving VEG 1 Baby and Toddler a go? Head to their shop to make a purchase. VEG 1 Baby and Toddler costs £8.50 for one 150ml bottle. Find out more by visiting their VEG 1 Baby & Toddler FAQs and for more information about raising vegan children, head to www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/family.
Actually, thinking about it, a supply of this supplement would make an ideal Christmas gift for vegan parents with toddlers to raise.
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