What is Edible Edinburgh?
Edible Edinburgh is a city-wide partnership that aims to inspire and motivate everyone across Edinburgh to work together to build new approaches to food.
We believe that together we can make positive choices that are healthier and tastier and which bring social, economic and environmental benefits to the whole community.
Why was it set up?
In 2011, the City of Edinburgh Council published a framework for a ‘Sustainable Edinburgh 2020’ and consulted on priority issues for action. Food issues came high on the list of what people felt was important so a series of seminars were held, exploring issues ranging from community access to land for growing to concerns about food and health, food waste and food poverty.
From this, a cross sector steering group was established and Edible Edinburgh was formed. In the autumn of 2013, a public consultation was launched to ask people across the city their opinion of Edible Edinburgh’s vision. Over 400 people and organisations responded with their feedback and thoughts.
We developed our Edible Edinburgh Sustainable Food City Plan based on what Edinburgh had to say, and we’ve been working together to improve Edinburgh’s food ever since!
How we work
Our partnership meets every two months to share ideas, progress and review what to do next. Members of the group connect widely across the food sector in our city to help make things happen. The partnership coordinator and other group members get involved in policy work, acting as a representative voice for the local and community food sector as well as for good public food.
The partnership’s working groups focus on specific food issues, such as health, food waste, food growing and the local economy. Take a look at our current work map for a sense of what we’re up to. We are always open to ideas and suggestions – please feel free to get in touch!
Who is involved?
The Edible Edinburgh Partnership connects representatives from the public, private and third sectors:
George Gordon: Councillor, City of Edinburgh Council
Fiona Macleod: Senior Policy Officer, City of Edinburgh Council
Pete Ritchie: Director, Nourish Scotland
Pat Abel: Chair, Transition Edinburgh South and Director, Nourish Scotland
Steve Brown: Head of Education, Edinburgh Food Social
Simon Kenton-Lake: Project & Policy Officer (Sustainable Nutrition), Nourish Scotland
Laura Nisbet: Development Officer (Food & Health), City of Edinburgh Council
Lesley Curtis: Sustainable Food Places Coordinator, Edible Edinburgh
Dawn Macleod, Service Development Manager, Edinburgh Food Project
Robbie Snowden: Food and Health Promotion Specialist, NHS Lothian
Brenda Black: Chief Executive Officer, Edinburgh Community Food
Kim Newstead: Senior Health Improvement Officer, Public Health Scotland
Greig Robertson, Director, Edible Estates
Biddy Kelly, Managing Director, Fresh Start
Paul Masser, CommunityFood Hub Worker, Community Alliance Trust
Fiona Richmond: Project Manager, Scotland Food & Drink
Severine Monvoisin: Garden Coordinator, Edinburgh College
Ylva Haglund: Food Waste Campaigns Manager, Zero Waste Scotland
Isabel Fletcher: Lecturer and Social Scientist, University of Edinburgh
Jim Stout: Nature Project Manager, LOVE Gorgie Farm
Caroline de Rouffignac: Industry Development Officer, Scotland Food & Drink
Contact
Want to get involved? Any suggestions for what we should be focusing on? We’d love to hear from you! If you want to get in touch, please drop us a line on hello@edible-edinburgh.org
Our Chair
Edible Edinburgh is chaired by Councillor George Gordon, Councillor for Forth Ward.
As our Chair he brings a wealth of experience and inspiration to the campaign to make our vision a reality. He is committed to leading the Edible Edinburgh partnership as it spearheads Edinburgh’s efforts to become a sustainable food city.
