14 April 2014
Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, and lead European election candidate for the region, Peter Cranie, will visit Carlisle on Tuesday 15 April to give their support to the city’s new, sustainable, ‘meals on wheels’ service. They will meet with local food co-operative, Fair Food Carlisle, to hear more about the scheme which aims to provide city residents with affordable locally grown food.
Fair Food Carlisle launched the ‘Fair Meals Direct’ service two weeks ago after Cumbria County Council ceased to provide its own ‘meals on wheels’ service. They have employed a professional chef who uses the kitchen at the Water Street homeless centre. Volunteers deliver hot meals to elderly and vulnerable people in their homes every weekday. The project is part of Sustainable Carlisle.
Mark Lloyd, Project Co-ordinator at Carlisle Fair Food, said: “Our aim is simple: using local producers to provide good quality food to people that are housebound, reconnecting them with local food. This service is also an opportunity to provide some social contact with volunteers going out to deliver the meals to people in their homes. We’ve employed a professional chef, but by using the kitchen at Water Street we’re providing a chance for homeless people to volunteer, learn some new skills and connect with their local community. We’ve started by delivering 25 meals each day but we hope to expand to 50 meals within the next six months.”
Green Party Leader, Natalie Bennett, said: “I’m looking forward to visiting this innovative and exciting project which is helping local Cumbrian farmers and growers and providing fresh tasty meals to vulnerable residents. With many councils cutting vital services due to the government’s austerity agenda it’s heartening to see that Fair Food Carlisle has seized this opportunity to deliver good quality, affordable, locally sourced meals. Using volunteers to deliver the meals, working with Carlisle Food bank and engaging homeless people in the project make it all the more beneficial to the local community.”
Peter Cranie, the North West Green Party’s lead European election candidate said: “The Green Party believes in promoting local food and projects such as this are a really concrete example of how people can buy and eat the produce which is grown and farmed on their doorstep without the need to give their money to the multinational supermarkets who make vast profits by driving down prices and the quality of our food.”
The party leader and lead European election candidate are meeting local members in Carlisle and Allerdale and Copeland ahead of May 22nd’s local and European elections. The Green Party is the fourth largest group in the European Parliament with 58 MEPs, working on issues as diverse as workers' rights, energy, transport, fishing, international development, environmental protection and employment. Peter Cranie lost out on a seat in the European Parliament by just 0.3% of the vote in 2009 and instead the British National Party’s leader, Nick Griffin, became the region’s MEP. The Greens are hoping to break through this May.
Later in the day they will visit Cockermouth’s FabLab which opened earlier this year and has received £80,000 of European funding. The lab provides businesses, entrepreneurs, schools and community groups with access to a wide range of cutting-edge equipment such as precision laser cutters and 3D digital printers, enabling them to develop products, prototypes or simply to learn more about the latest fabrication methods.
On Thursday evening they will meet Allerdale and Copeland Green Party members and the board of the Cumbria Trust, a non party political group formed to oppose any Geological Disposal Facility in Cumbria on geological, environmental and safety grounds. Natalie and Peter will hear about the campaign and local opposition to DECCʼs proposed exclusion of Cumbria County Council and all other county Councils from the process and the exclusion of parish and town Councils.
For more information about Fair Food Carlisle see:;http://fairfoodcarlisle.org/
For more information about Sustainable Carlisle see: www.sustainablecarlisle.org
For more information on the Cockermouth FabLab see: http://becfablab.org/
For more information on the Cumbria Trust see: http://cumbriatrust.wordpress.com/
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