We asked, you said, we did

We asked

We asked for your views on our draft Barnet Food Plan 2022 - 2027.

You said

We received 56 responses to our online survey asking for feedback on the Draft Barnet Food Plan. In addition, public health officers delivered presentations and led discussions with seven community groups and council stakeholders. Notes from these sessions as well as written submissions from six community groups and individuals were received and incorporated into the final draft of the Food Strategy.

Some of the key findings from the consultation were as follows:

• top priorities identified: addressing climate change across our work on food and ensuring access to healthy, affordable food for all residents especially during the cost-of-living crisis
• significant desire for more community gardening and growing initiatives and spaces, and more community food initiatives
• the food environment and unhealthy high streets are seen as a barrier to healthy eating
• the Draft Food Plan is too vague and uses too much jargon
• the Draft Food Plan is ‘data-light’ and needs more data
• the council should lead on promoting plant-based foods and diets to people in Barnet and where it sells and provides food .

We did

We reviewed the Draft Food Plan and added more data, including Barnet-specific data on the health of adults and children, and deprivation and food insecurity. Where data is not immediately available, such as information on procurement by Barnet Council, gathering this data has been added to actions outlined in the Food Plan.

We reviewed the Draft Food Plan to remove jargon and clarify specific areas and phrases that were flagged as unclear.

We reviewed the three themes and associated actions. We streamlined the thematic areas in line with the priorities of stakeholders and residents. Amending the thematic areas to Healthy People, Healthy Place and Healthy Planet allows for greater emphasis on actions which aim to make Barnet a healthy food place, such as community gardening and growing spaces and coordination and support of the local food system.

The final draft of the Barnet Food Plan was approved by the Health and Wellbeing Board in January 2023 and you can view it here Barnet-Food-Plan-2022-2027.