What a great month July has been for the Club! On Monday 13th the Club held a local food sharing event which was fun, educational and delicious! The evening was made extra special because we held an induction for two brand new Soroptimists and one returner. It was wonderful to give all three of them a warm welcome to the Club. Carry on reading for more about the evening.
The idea of this “Bring and Share” supper was for everyone to bring food with the fewest food miles and share the food and the backstory of the food with everyone. Everyone agreed that the food was delicious! The quiz and films during the evening were thought provoking and led to some great discussions about the challenge of buying locally and reducing food miles. This excellent event was organised by the Club’s “Planet Team”, in particular Helen Byrne and Linda Middleton.
Why should we eat food that has travelled less to reach us? Quiz, discussion and film.
Why are we looking at how and where we get our food from? Our current food system is a leading cause of biodiversity loss and global warming. It is also responsible for increasing the risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart disease, as well as public health threats such as antimicrobial resistance and pandemics emerging from industrial animal agriculture.
Why Buy Locally? Please click here to watch a 3 minute film about Food Miles and why they matter:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhlmrlJN9uM
The quiz (see below) and people’s stories of how challenging it had been to bring truly “local” food along led to some great discussions and understanding.
Q: Bananas can come from India, China and the Philippines-bananas from which of these three countries has the least food miles?
Q: Flying in food generates more greenhouses gases than using cargo ships. How much more- 15 times , 47 times or 102 times?
Q: What does the biggest proportion of any food’s carbon footprint come from- its production or transport?
Q: What is the average distance food items travel before landing on UK shelves? 500 miles/1200 miles/ 1500 miles
Q: Strawberries grown in the UK are available during summer but winter strawberries can travel from Spain– how may miles could they be travelling ?
Q: Is the carbon footprint of 2 small avocados larger or smaller than a kilo of bananas?
Are Food Miles the whole story? Food miles are a very small proportion of the damage done to the planet by food. Agricultural practices, packaging and particularly waste have a big impact. As do dietary choices and the growing population. These all impact carbon emissions. We also need to consider biodiversity loss. Agricultural developments like No Dig & Regenerative farming are a way to tackle this alongside reducing carbon emissions.
Distributing fairly and easily? What we have all found is finding ways to distribute food and drink which supports the planet is a big challenge for both farmers and the public – the role of supermarkets and local and central government cannot be underestimated. Food security is also about the need to ensure food is available to all at a price people can afford. To tackle all of these needs requires a fundamental change in the way the food system works in the UK. This video shows how a single community-led box scheme (Growing Communities) developed a farmer-led Better Food Traders Network in London to tackle some of these challenges but even they are struggling against the way the economics of the current food system work. From Farm to Fork: How London’s Food economy in changing (5.27mins) https://youtu.be/QK7ZcYOOlG8?si=fq30uczPj7avU5zu.
Please look at the website from Food Futuring – “a collective visioning project that brings together stakeholders from across Hertfordshire to co-create a shared vision for a healthy, fair and resilient local food system.” https://www.foodfuturing.com
Three More Soroptimists!
The Club’s Membership Officer Bev Keech was delighted to be formally introducing two new Members to the Club: Karen Affleck and Zoe Cadman and to be welcoming back Shenara Abraham. In the photo with the Club’s banners they are all extending “the hands of friendship” (l to r Shenara, Zoe, Bev, Karen). Bev introduced them, Club Members all introduced themselves and Karen, Zoe and Shenara all said a few words about their motivation for joining – a simple induction which is always very moving for everyone because it is a reminder of why all Members joined and continue to make a difference to the lives of women and girls, as well as the benefit of having a wonderful friendship and support network.
Karen Affleck is a biologist by training, followed by completing a PhD in cancer research at Nottingham University, she started work as a Research Scientist at Wellcome Research Laboratories in 1990 and had an amazing career staying in the research organisation in what became GlaxoWellcome and subsequently GSK, working across multiple disease areas but predominantly Respiratory disease (asthma and COPD). Zoe retired in 2024 and, one of the most important impacts she feels she made was in the area of promoting and mentoring young women in science.
Zoe Cadman was initially a solicitor in private practice but moved into the public sector beginning a career as a lawyer in the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) and the Government Legal Service before moving into the change management team leading on knowledge management for lawyers across GLS. Zoe was appointed as the first Head of Legal Knowledge Management for HMRC which also involved working across the policy teams on specific high-profile issues. She retired in 2022 but maintains a general interest in law and took on a new role as Magistrate in the Family Law courts, a new and interesting area.
Shenara Abraham is a Financial Adviser by profession and previously worked in the charity sector, supporting community projects in central London. These included homelessness outreach work and anti-trafficking. She is passionate about community, especially women’s rights and wellbeing. She joined 3 years ago but a change of jobs made it impossible for her to engage as she wanted to. Since changing jobs she is keen to get involved again.
We know they will all be great assets to Soroptimist International and we look forward to a bright Soroptimist future for all three of our new “sisters”.
To wrap up the July activities members, friends and families went on a special guided walk in St Albans called “WOMEN OF ST ALBANS” on Monday 27 July with two extremely friendly and knowledgeable St Albans Tour Guides (click here for more about the different walks offered https://www.stalbanstourguides.co.uk/).
They took us through some important St Albans “herstory” including Margaret Wix the first female Mayor of St Albans, Betty Entwistle the first female Town Clerk in England, Queen Eleanor who’s body was in St Albans overnight on the way to her final resting place in Westminster Cathedral, Eleanor Ormerod who was a Victorian gentlewoman with a passion for entomology and many more. They gave us an insight to medieval market women, and industries in the town where women thrived in the past like hat-making. It was a lovely way to celebrate the women, ordinary and extraordinary, who have made an impact on St Albans. Afterwards we went for a delicious meal at L’Italiana where the conversation flowed as always with Soroptimists!