Food Banks and Food Festivals might not seem comfortable bedfellows, but it’s nevertheless an Abergavenny reality.
So in amongst the exotic food offerings of the up and coming Abergavenny Food Festival, Saturday 20th September’s programme will also include the free-all -day “Just Food” fringe event, where talks, panel discussions, films, and food demonstrations will centre on possible radical alternatives to ease the current inequalities in food production and consumption. So do come and share ideas, share food and join in the debates and discussion in the Guide Hall, off the Fairfield Car Park, starting at 11:00am. (Look for the Red Carrot!)
Organised by the Abergavenny Community Canteen in association with Abergavenny Transition Town, the event will open at 11:00am with a short Film “Survival against the Odds” the story of a food cooperative, introduced by Betty Hunter of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
At midday, the Chef Kate Jones, in discussion with Dan Iles of the World development Movement will be showing how to avoid Supermarket processed food and ready-meals by making tasty and nutritious food on a very tight budget. This will be followed by a light lunch where you can try the food demonstrated, (small donations to cover costs) between 1:00-2:00pm.
The afternoon kicks off with a panel discussion “Foodbanks – symptom or solution” where you can put your questions to Tony Graham, the Trussell Trust’s Foodbank Network Manager (Wales), and Lindsay Kearton, Policy officer of Citizen’s Advice Cymru.
We seek to support local small farmers, farmers markets, and encourage allotment growth and local food production, sourcing and processing. We want to prevent the big corporates gaining a complete stranglehold on our food delivery systems. At 3:00pm Dan Iles will report and share discussions on “The new scramble for Africa: Corporations vs small farmers” and this will be followed at 4:00pm by “Local Food Horizons: do we know our limits?” where Patrick Hannay of the Centre for Alternative Technology explores through discussion, Abergavenny realities on local food sourcing, and models for making just food, more equitably “Just Food.”