ASC0232 - Community Food Growing Support Programme 2018

Leicester City Council is requiring for the provision of Community Food Growing Support Programme. Its aim is to incentivise and develop community food growing opportunities for communities that may have limited access to growing food.

The programme will provide advice and support to a range of groups in need as well as targeting projects to develop skills and knowledge in food growing. This will include developing of peer mentoring opportunities and linking with existing programmes that support families and communities to gain increased access to and knowledge of healthy food.

There will be a focus on widening networking opportunities for food growing groups in order to increase sharing of knowledge, skills and to develop confidence in food growing. The programme targets those in community groups or settings who have little experience in growing food to develop their confidence along with skills and knowledge.

This work forms part of a commitment of Leicester's Food Plan to have a bigger network of community food growers and projects. The long term aim is to make Leicester a healthy and sustainable food city and to address increased levels of diet related ill health in the city by enabling people to access healthy food, increase their levels of physical activity, increase their fruit and vegetable consumption, and improve social interaction and community cohesion.

The proposed Contract will commence on 1st April 2018 for an initial term of 2 years with an option to extend for a further period or periods of up to12 months. The procurement process is being undertaken as a Request for Quotation process in accordance with the Regime for the award of Social and other specific services as defined in Regulation 74 of the Public Contracts Regulations2015.