As the population of north Edinburgh becomes more diverse, we need to ensure that our organisations and services are demonstrating best practice in working with BAME residents. 

We have already formed an anti-racism working group which includes 10 organisations.  The remit of the group is

• Identifying and sharing best practice in the area
• Gathering data and sharing data to raise awareness of the changing demographics and need to engage with antiracist work
• Identifying and sharing resources that help us provide better, more accessible services
• Sharing ideas
• Working with statutory services
• Developing new collective initiatives that support this work e.g. training, world café.

As part of this wider work, we want to develop and deliver training that will be available for decisions makers within local organisations to support them to think about what might be needed within their own organisations and how they can learn from others in the area to improve their existing practice, particularly for BAME residents.

At our next R2 meeting (for all 50 R2 member organisations) we will highlight some of the barriers that are faced by BAME residents and seek further information from local organisations about what level of training would be useful for them.

We aim to deliver 3 x 3hr training sessions in the autumn.

The training will introduce key concepts around an anti-racist approach including

• Understanding Race and Racism
• Systemic Racism
• Implicit bias and microagressions
• Creating inclusive environments

The course will encourage personal reflection and give participants the opportunity to explore how they might collaborate with others in the area to find solutions.  They will be encouraged to take action within their own organisations and explore how to hold each other to account for these actions, leading to an ongoing network of support in north Edinburgh. 

The training will be delivered by Project Esperanza on behalf of R2 and be free to attend for all local organisations.  We’d encourage a least two people from each organisation to attend to support and encourage action within organisations.

We would like to provide a hot meal every week for the families we kow are struggling the most with food insecurity, we often hear stories of parents who wait until their childrenhave eaten to see what they leave so they can have the left overs as there is not enough food to go round the whole family.

Having family tea time for 4 months would allow us to provide 10 families with a hot meal and spend som equality time with their children at meal times. This would assist with not only healthy eating but social interaction and increase family dynamics. We would use the food we have on our sharing shelf to show what meals can be made on a budget so that families can join our sharing shelf and acess the food at a fraction of the cost they would pay in the supermarket. We would provide families with a small recipe book and help with budgeting.

There is a strong tradition of collaborative working around food in north Edinburgh.  We have local organisations that work with residents to grow, harvest, process, cook and distribute food.  By working together we can begin to build a local food economy that includes and is accessible to everyone.  We are very aware of the challenging circumstances that many local people face.  This project is a first step in sourcing food for those experiencing food insecurity from a local organic farm.

A group of 5 local organisations has contributed to the cost of growing a field of tatties at Lauriston farm.  These organisations will support the tatties to be planted and harvested and used by the community and will receive a share of the harvest when the tatties are ready.

One of the many barriers to locally grown food is how unfamiliar it can be to some people.  However, everyone knows potatoes and has a recipe to share.  So, we are celebrating local food by sharing recipes at North Edinburgh Community Festival and through community meals and a harvest celebration.

At the festival there will be a food stage where local residents will demonstrate their tattie recipes.  We expect these recipes to reflect the diverse community in north Edinburgh.  Recipes will be shared on attractive recipe cards.  To support this initiative local catering organisations will provide free potato meals for people who come to the festival.

After the festival these residents will be supported to host community meals where friends and family can share a taste of the recipe. 

To further promote tatties and local recipes we’ll make up recipe packs with the ingredients to take home and cook the tattie meals that have been shared by local residents.  These will be distributed at the community meals and via local community food projects.

Finally, after the final tatties are harvested Lauriston Farm will host a harvest festival.  We want this to be accessible to everyone who has taken part in this project and so will provide transport and food.

Much of this project is already funded.  We are seeking a small amount to support residents to take part and benefit from this project.

Background

Food poverty in a well know problem and is not unique to the North of Edinburgh, but it is something that many in our community are struggling with. 30% of children nationally going to school without a breakfast, we can assume that number is higher for our community.

Is well documented that a healthy breakfast an provide us the best way to be ready for the day, improving mental well-being, general health and energy levels. This is especially true in young people. Something we witnessed first hand when we ran our Breakfast club from our old building.

Early in 2019 we started our first Saturday Breakfast Club in the library, providing cereal, breakfast bars, fruit teas and coffees for free for all users of the library, but our main target for this provision were children and families. Later that year, with the help of funding from Urban Union and Robertsons, we expanded it to cover the whole of the summer holidays and October break. 

Then a couple of things happened, Covid closed our doors, then the building was demolished to make way for our new building. All this meant that we were removed from the community for several years and unable to continue was had grown into a valued service that was attended by many the community, with 1500+ breakfast portions being served over the period of 2019.

Fast forward to now, we are in our new building and back in the heart of the community and ready to help build up our community.

Proposal

We would like to seek funding to reestablish our Breakfast Club, providing free healthy breakfast to anyone who needs it.

The club would run again every Saturday morning and Monday to Saturday throughout each of the school holidays over the funding period.

We will provide,

• A range of cereals, fruits and breakfast bars
• Teas, Coffees and fruit Juices
• Options for those with dietary requirements and allergies

Access would be completely open to all, and we will not require anyone to register or provide details.

Note: Funding for our previous club was not given to us directly, items needed were purchased on our behalf from ASDA on weekly basis and delivered to us directly. If this would be possible again it would help us greatly but would not be essential for us to run the group.