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Well done to Eat Wild and to Tops Day Nursery. Well researched and written piece in the Times here pointing out the cost to drivers and to agriculture of deer overpopulation in the UK. Only when the militant, anti hunting vegetarians and vegans realise the threat to UK agriculture and the implications of relying solely on imported foods will media such as the BBC and the other left wing media realise how important game hunting and personal choice is. As it is we have a multitude of famers having issues with poorly thought out laws and guidelines, DEFRA allows pollution of the waterways and their IT system is causing issues with subsidy payments to farmers. These same farmers have to cope with supermarkets failing to pay them a fair rate for their produce leaving the UK with millions of acres of grassland and farmland lost to carbon credit woodland and development since 2010 (see farming UK July 2022 or the Independent July 2020). Farmland enough to produce 250,000 tonnes of homegrown food per annum gone forever. Perhaps it is now time to support game shooting and famers alike before the UK becomes a concrete metropolis incapable of sustaining any meaningful home grown produce? Well BBC News The Labour Party will you support UK sustainably and sensible game hunting?

Having access to healthy food is a basic human right.

Last year, we adopted a beehive as part of our drive to be a more sustainable company, and we wanted to do something to help the local countryside. Following on from our last update, the latest news from Stuart Weekes from SW Honey Farms is all about the hive inspection. 🐝 Once temperatures consistently reach around 13°C or higher, Stuart opens up the hives to check on the bees, their young (called brood), and their food storage. This is the first glimpse at the bees to see how they are, how effective their treatments have been and how well the worker bees have protected their queen. The queen bee is essential to the colony's health and so needs to be checked too. Stuart says, “I look for signs of her presence, such as eggs, larvae, and capped brood cells. I also check her physical health to investigate her viability for the new beekeeping season.” How exciting! Fingers crossed Stuart finds that our bees are having a good season this year. 🤞 Keep an eye out for our next update with the final checks that Stuart has to carry out as we get closer to our pot of honey! 🍯 #Bee #Honey #Nature #SaveTheBees #Sustainability #AskAvrion #TechnologyPartner #Technology #DigitalTransformation #ProblemSolving

If you even loosely follow the news in Minnesota, you probably already know that we once again broke the record for most food shelf visits ever, at 7.5 million in 2023. You may also know that Second Harvest Heartland is ponying up to do something about it, starting with our new #MakeHungerHistory initiative, which aims to cut hunger in half by 2030. I wrote a little something about it and hope you'll check it out: https://lnkd.in/gP8e3tTC Kudos to Allison O'Toole for setting the vision, the Board of Directors for embracing it, and all my incredible colleagues who are already working to make this a reality. It'll take a whole-of-community effort to get it done, and it won't happen without additional investments and policies that target hunger at its roots. Which is why hunger is, ultimately, a policy choice. Let's choose to end it - starting by cutting it in half over the next six years. #mnleg #hunger #foodsecurity #foodinsecurity #moonshot #Minnesota #advocacy

#WhyDoCats try to cover their food sometimes? 🥣 🐈 Some cats will scrape around their food and water bowls, similar to the way they would scrape in the litter tray. There are a number of theories on this behaviour. One suggests the cat, not wanting to eat everything just yet, is trying to cover it to return later. This also helps to prevent other animals accessing their food or potential predators being attracted to the smell. Another theory suggests that the cat does not find the smell of the food particularly appealing and is trying to cover it up. 🐾 Have you noticed your cat scraping around their bowl? If this behaviour becomes an issue for you, it may be worth giving your cat smaller more frequent meals or offering dry food, and then ‘leftovers’ will not represent a problem. #Caturday #Cats #CatCharity #CatOwner

We are proud to be featured in Middleburg Life Magazine for our Race Against Hunger at the MIDDLEBURG SPRING RACE ASSOCIATION, INC. event! 🌟 Dive into the article to discover how Dulles South Soup Kitchen is making a meaningful impact in the community. Tour days a week, you can find a team of dedicated and talented cooks preparing hot, nutritious meals for those in need at the Dulles South Soup Kitchen (DSSK) Unlike traditional soup kitchens, where meals are served on-site, DSSK takes their generosity to the streets, distributing prepared meals free of cost, no questions asked. Their impact is significant, with 850 to 900 meals distributed weekly at Stone Springs Hospital and through community partnerships. DSSK founder Devina Mahapatra's vision has always been to "supplement the good work of the food pantries and other organizations in the community. Food pantries are a wonderful way to help our neighbors." Mahapatra shares, "but they provide packaged provisions. For people who are homeless, who live out of their car, who don't have a kitchen they don't have the ability to transform these items into a hot meal" Th is is where Dulles South Soup Kitchen bridges the gapMahapatra's journey began in her native In- dia, where her family instilled in her a profound empathy for the underprivileged and an under- standing of the transformative power of a warm meal. This ignited her lifelong mission: No one should ever go to bed hungry. Driven by this foundational principle, Mahapatra opened her heart and her home during the pandemic, pre- paring meals and serving them to those most in need. As the de- mand for meals grew, so did her vision, Mahapatra built a team of advisors, including board mern- ber Chef Kumar Iyer, owner of Manassas-based Rangoli, to as- sist in moving DSSK to a com mercial kitchen capable of sup- porting larger volumes.. The sad truth is that in Amer- ica's wealthiest county, too many still experience food insecurity. Defined by the United States De- partment of Agriculture as the lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life, food in- security impacts around 16,000 people in Loudoun County, with 49% of these residents ineligible for federal nutrition programs. Despite being named the wealth- iest county in America, the child food insecurity rate in Loudoun County is 9.5%, or approximate- ly 9,660 children, and of these children, 66% are likely ineligible for federal nutrition programs due to income lirnitations. #CommunitySpotlight #DullesSouthSoupKitchen #MakingADifference

"Remember -- your love for bacon can make a big difference!" Funny, but true. There is a serious side to this too. The Walworth County Food and Diaper Bank is a great organization, and symbolic of many which are responding to food insecurity in our communities. In our particular case our Bank serves, at some point during the year, about 5 percent of our county's population - distributing $5M of food across 16,000+ guest encounters. All of this is made possible by roughly 120 volunteers whose work seems never ending. Those we serve are primarily referred to as ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed). In other words, neighbors in situations where one car repair, medical bill, or unexpected expense can force a difficult decision about food. A full 40 percent of those we serve in a year come only once. 70 percent receive food from us four times or less in a year. In our county, and probably yours too, up to 35 percent of our residents fall into the ALICE classification. Those are really staggering numbers when you think about them. And food for thought as well (sorry). If all those numbers seem daunting, come and celebrate some bacon with us! 😁 #foodinsecurity #foodbank #neighborshelpingneighbors

In 2023, County Executive Steuart Pittman created the Anne Arundel County Food Council by executive order. Hosted by the Partnership for Children, Youth and Families and facilitated by Due East, the Food Council came together to address the root causes of food insecurity. Due East played a pivotal role in bringing together a diverse group of local food providers, producers, and distributors, fostering a collective vision and shared plan to ensure everyone has equitable access to affordable, healthy food. 🍎 This strategic plan combines safety-net programs such as food banks and pantries with long-term solutions that aim to strengthen local farming and community gardens. 🧑🌾 The ultimate goal is to ensure that individuals earn enough income to afford healthy food for themselves and their families. #socialimpactleaders #sustainablecommunities #togetherwethrive

Holistic Approach to Community Building: Growing Fruit, Veg, and More Discover our holistic approach to community building through training in media, housing, maintenance, and gardens. Join us as we delve into growing vegetables, fruit, berries, and even apple orchards in our therapeutic allotment. Learn valuable skills while supporting our food bank, which also offers home delivery. #CommunityBuilding #HolisticApproach #GrowingFruit #GrowingVegetables #TherapeuticAllotment #FoodBank #SkillsDevelopment #TeamLeadership #HealthyLiving #SupportingCommunity

"Growing Up In A Pub And On A Farm, I Learned The Value Of Hard Work And Hearty Meals Early On. Food Wasn't Just Fuel For Us, It Was Our Way Of Communicating, Bonding, And Sometimes, Disagreements. With A Strong, Big-Boned Frame, I Dominated On The Field, Embracing That Identity, Because I Didn’t Know Any Better. #FarmLife #FamilyFirst #FitFarmer #FamilyTableTalks"