21 Sep Meet Jennifer Hedges

Meet Jennifer Hedges who is Rural Officer at ACRE. Jennifer’s role, at least in the short term, will include leading on marketing and administration for the North Northants Sustainable Food Network (NNSFN). Jennifer has worked for ACRE since December 2019, largely supporting communities to establish Good Neighbours Schemes. Jennifer has recently returned from maternity leave – her little boy is called Jacob.

My job: I am supporting the Full Circle work that Made In Northamptonshire is doing with regards to the apps. I will also be leading on increasing the content of the new, interactive map and keeping all the information up to date.

I’ll also be picking up the marketing and admin for NNSFN until we can get a full time replacement to work exclusively for the Network.

What is Full Circle? Our Full Circle project is supporting farmers, producers, suppliers and food retailers on their journey to sustainability. Full Circle is also providing a matchmaking service linking hospitality businesses with producers and suppliers who have food produce that would otherwise go to waste.

What I love: I love working with partners and finding out about their work. There are some really inspiring businesses and not for profit organisations in our county and our food network is all about enabling a wide range of organisations to work together.

My typical day: I have an extremely varied job role and work across a broad range of subject areas from green infrastructure and the environment to rural food. A typical day involves a partnership meeting, writing funding bids and reports, and dealing with queries from rural communities.

Any challenges? With a sustainability and food waste project like this the challenge will bereaching the right people, building those connections, and getting the information out to communities.

How you can help: Please get in touch, chat to me and provide us with information. Perhaps you have a community larder in your village or you are a farm supplying produce to local supermarkets. If you are based in North Northamptonshire and work in the food and drink sector we want to hear about all the good work you are doing in North Northamptonshire.

And … when I’m not working: I love being outdoors, I have a large allotment, and as a family we love hiking and canoeing. When I have time I also like to sew clothes and quilts.

You can contact Jenni by email: Jennifer.Hedges@northantsacre.org.uk