Our Story

With funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, between 2013 and 2019 we helped nearly 60 places across the UK to emulate the success of these early pioneers as part of the Sustainable Food Cities Network.

Find the stories of our members on their profile and via our YouTube channel.

Thanks to the generous support of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund, at the beginning of 2020 we embarked on a new 5-year Sustainable Food Places programme through which we will adapt and extend the model to new places and work with our leading pioneers to show just what can be achieved through a collaborative approach to good food.

Together, we aim to normalise local food partnerships, good food activism and the heathy and sustainable food they promote as a standard part of the institutional and social landscape of towns, cities, boroughs, districts and counties across the UK.

This will involve:

• Reaching up - raising the bar of just what can be achieved locally and nationally on key food issues through both the individual and combined action of local food partnerships - including supporting a critical mass of SFP members to achieve silver and gold status, as well as building on existing and developing new campaigns.
   
• Reaching out - adapting and extending the preceding SFC model to enable new places and communities in every corner of the UK to establish dynamic and inclusive local food partnerships and to build local good food movements of active and engaged citizens.
   
• Empowering - helping SFP partnerships to learn from and support each other through funded peer to peer activity and giving Network members greater ownership of the programme, through involvement in governance, the awards and programme development.