I have been a Councillor at Blackburn with Darwen (BwD) Unitary Authority since 2018 and Assistant Executive for Adult Services & Health, Older Persons Champion, and elected member North BwD Primary Care Neighbourhood.

I was born in the East End of London where I completed my nursing and midwifery training. I moved to Blackburn in 1986 and took further studies at the University of Central Lancashire. I studied and learnt a lot about the practice of change when working as an improvement lead in the local NHS

I formally established the Food Alliance in 2021 and became the Chair to steer to CIO status.

I have been a lifelong participant in community organisations from founding a childcare co-operative to Keep Blackburn Tidy.

A lifelong learner who enjoys being a grandma, making and creating, growing food, bee keeping and generally ‘trying stuff out’. I strive to be a participant of all aspects of a Community of Practice.

Website:  jackiefloyd17.wordpress.com

My background is in teaching, I have worked for primary schools, Blackburn College, am currently an Early Years Assessor for Best Practice Network and do supply work for Reed Education. As a Family Learning Tutor, I delivered cooking classes for children and their parents. The focus was on basic food preparation skills and budget meals.

I have worked for the Cooperative Group for two years as a Member Pioneer. This has involved me building a network of community charities and sporting clubs. I have connected the food stores with groups who benefit from the short-dated food which can be distributed to families or made into meals. I coordinate the allocation of the Local Community Fund; three local charities are chosen each year to receive a share of the Co-op Member’s money from each area.

On a personal level, I have been married to a busy GP for the last 30 years and we have four children aged between 18 and 26. I like gym classes, travelling, cooking, watching films and walking.

As a Trustee for the Food Alliance, I can share my local knowledge, teaching experience and interest in building connections to achieve a more equitable distribution of food.

As Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of Multi Award Winning Community & Business Partners CIC, I have significant experience of partnership working with the Private Sector and in the Voluntary, Community, Social Enterprise sectors.

I have vast experience in managing projects, services for commercial markets and delivering impact in the local community, excelling in leading the sustainability and growth of the company.

As examples of the expertise I bring as a Trustee of the Food Alliance, I was a lead partner for the successful £23 million LEGI bid to promote enterprise in deprived communities of Pennine Lancashire, led a successful partnership of £1m Asset Transfer from office third sector in partnership with BwD Borough Council and have been a lead delivery partner of the Boost Business Growth Programme for Lancashire County Council since 2012.

I qualified in Management Studies to level 7 – EDMS Lancaster University. I am a member of the Board of Trustees for the Community Foundation for Lancashire since 2015. Member of the Parish Council for Laneshaw Bridge, Pendle since 2021.

I am Chief Officer of Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen, whose aim is to help residents to share their views and experiences on local health and social care services and have greater ownership of their own health and wellbeing.

I have worked in the voluntary sector for over 13 years and have had the responsibility of fundraising through different income streams and am keen to support the Alliance’s sustainability.

I am also currently Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Fordhall Community Land Initiative. Fordhall Farm was a pioneer in organic farming and became the first community owned farm in England in 2006 and now has over 8,000 shareholders from across the UK and worldwide.

Gill is the Operations Manager at Blackburn Foodbank which is a full-on, full-time & very interesting role. She has successfully overseen the growth of the whole service as a result of the pandemic and the rise of the cost of living.

She has extensive experience writing grant applications and managing large-scale projects and events – including organising music events with over 4000 children and mass catering for parties and weddings. She is a great networker, making countless connections between people both in the workplace and at home.

In her spare time Gill is a Director of Whoops a Daisy Music, running a music programme for 115 schools across the county. Concerts are planned with military precision and are enjoyed by thousands, both performing and watching.

In her spare time Gill loves singing with her 2 choirs – The Trills and Octavius, going to parties with friends and family, cooking dinner for others and playing badminton.

Being a Trustee of the Food Alliance, Gill hopes to help unite all the food groups in Blackburn with Darwen to provide opportunities for the best food and diet for the people in the Borough.

As the co-ordinator for our Food Alliance, creating positive change around food is Lynne’s primary focus. She feels passionately that developing a forward-thinking aspirational food strategy for the Borough has the potential to be a catalyst for change.

Lynne qualified as an occupational therapist and has worked in this capacity in the NHS, voluntary sector and academia. Whilst working in academia, as a Social Scientist, much of the research she undertook and supervised focused on developing person orientated approaches to working with people with long term health conditions. Latterly, Lynne also qualified as a personal development coach. It is this person and place-based approach that she brings to her work co-ordinating the food alliance.

Lynne has worked to develop networks at a local, regional and national level and greatly values the integral role that partnership working plays in developing movements for change such as a good food movement. She’s person focused, an optimist with a fundamental belief in our ability to shape the world we live and create narratives which challenge the status quo.

Outside of work, Lynne has been a Trustee of Blackburn Foodbank and helped set up a farmers’ market, food club & luncheon club in our community.

My name is Dawn and I am the newest member of staff here at the Food Alliance.  As a good food movement one of our aims is to increase public understanding, involvement and knowledge of the way in which food is produced, distributed and consumed.  I have been recruited specifically with funding from Sustainable Food Places https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/, to identify and form relationships with small food businesses and producers In the borough and surrounding area so that we can then generate a greater  connection between those who consume the food to those who produce it.

I feel that over the years we have lost touch with what food is, where it comes from and have generally become disconnected from so many things. I am excited to be part of this new, holistic and celebratory food agenda.  I am passionate about people, communities, individual and collective well being. I cant think of a better way than food to bring communities together and restore that sense of connection to each other and the environment that we live in.