(a)

the theme for Thrive Year 5 was people connecting through food.  They were working in partnership with Food Plymouth as the connecting platform for all things food related across the city;

(b)

they were  focussing on achieving the silver award for sustainable food cities.  They currently have the bronze award and if successful Plymouth would be one of only four local authorities to achieve this;

(c)

the award was designed to recognise and celebrate the success of places taking a joined up holistic approach to food and achieving significant positive change on a range of food issues;

(d)

to achieve the award an action plan had been developed against 6 key areas and have asked partners to pledge their support –

·         promoting healthy and sustainable food to the public;

·         tackling food poverty, diet related ill health and access to affordable healthy food;

·         building community food knowledge;

·         promoting a vibrant and diverse sustainable food economy;

·         transforming catering food procurement;

·         reducing waste and illogical footprint of the food system.

(e)

they would be hosting a number of events over the year and have developed a training package to enable partners to encourage and support local action within the community.

(f)

it had been challenging working with the large supermarkets, however Food Plymouth work closely with the food retailers particularly around sugar smart, promoting healthy options and calorie labelling.  They were also looking to undertake a project working with takeaway outlets to reduce calorie content and portion sizes.  Also lobbying larger organisations to take action against sugar and healthier options;

(g)

they were fully evaluating the local impact of the sugar smart programme and Thrive Plymouth they would report on progress against Year 5 as part of the Director of Public Health’s Annual report.