This year the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership is launching the city’s first ‘Local Food Week’, during September’s Food Festival. As part of our Harvest campaign to get more people growing their own food, we will be running a range of initiatives during the week and encouraging schools, community food projects and local residents to organise their own events.

Here are some of the things that will happen during Local Food Week:

Wednesday 22 September

• Cookery Demonstration with Rob Shenton of Due South, at the Live Food Stage at Churchill Square Farmers Market, organised by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.
  
  
• Moulescoomb Primary's Harvest Festival: Now in its fourth year, the festival is all about fresh, locally-grown produce rather than canned food. Students will help harvest and cook crops of all kinds from the school allotment and nearby growing project, Moulescoomb Forest Garden.
  
  
• Film screening: The Academy-award nominated documentary Food Inc will be showing on Wednesday 22 September at 7pm at the Sallis Benney Theatre. Don't miss this film, which has been described as ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ about food.  Colin Tudge, author of So Shall We Reep and Feeding People is Easy, and co-founder of Landshare and the Campaign for Real Farming, will speak afterwards about how the film relates to us here in the UK. Organised by Harvest, World Family, Transition Brighton & Hove and Brighton University.
  
  
• The Food Quiz at Temptations Cafe on Wednesday 22 September, 7.30pm, tickets £10, more at www.brightonfoodfestival.com.
  
  
• From the ground up: A photography exhibit with tales and images from community food projects and smallholder farms around the world, from Latin America to Whitehawk! Displayed at the Infinity Foods Cafe from 22 September, more details coming soon. Organised by Transition Brighton & Hove, World Family and Harvest.
  
  

Saturday 25 September

• Local Food Picnic: Join us for a picnic in Preston Park on Saturday 25 September, where you can share food you have grown or made at home, participate in fun activities and learn more about how to cook tasty local food at home. Kindly sponsored by Infinity Foods.
  
  
• The winners of our ‘grow it!' competition for businesses will be announced at the picnic in Preston Park and you should be seeing creative displays of edible plants in business premises around the city.
  
  

Sunday 26 September

• Taste of Sussex 4-course, locally-sourced taster menu at Drakes on Sunday 26 September, 12.30pm, £40pp, more at www.brightonfoodfestival.com.
  
  
• Apple Day: Brighton Permaculture Trust's annual event will take place at Stanmer Park on Sunday 26 September, with apple crumble and teas, juice making, children's activities, apple identification, guided tours, produce for sale and much more.
  
  
• Weald Allotments Open Day is your chance to visit 'one of the best-kept secrets in Hove'. Take a tour, visit an 'open shed' or just get lost in this secret garden paradise on Sunday 26 September.
  
  

There is still time to organise your own event as part of Local Food Week, here are some ideas!

• Local residents and communities could organise an event like a neighbourhood meal, food swap or market.
• Community food projects could hold an open day, pick and cook day or workday.
• Schools could organise their annual Harvest Festivals, or simply arrange an assembly or a lesson to discuss local food issues.
• Cafes, restaurants or even school and workplace caterers could organise a special local food menu option during this week.

Please feel free to contact us if you want to discuss your ideas.

Find out more about the Grow It! Competition for businesses and how to enter.

More details will be coming soon about events during the week, you can sign-up to our newsletter to keep informed.