Turning Strategy into Action: Lessons from Oxfordshire’s Food Journey

The report isn’t just a record of progress—it’s a practical roadmap designed to inspire and support other food partnerships across the UK.

A roadmap for local food action

The Oxfordshire team have set out the steps they’ve taken to move from vision to action, offering a clear, straightforward guide that complements our own SFP Toolkit. Their approach shows how food strategies can be embedded locally, with councils, communities, businesses and organisations working together to make lasting change.

What makes this resource particularly valuable is its honesty. It doesn’t shy away from the challenges encountered along the way, but it also celebrates the successes—providing practical insights that others can adapt to their own context.

The Oxfordshire story offers:

• A model of how to translate a countywide food strategy into concrete local action plans

• Lessons on partnership building and coordination across sectors and geographies

• A resource that complements existing SFP tools while adding real-world case studies and examples

As Good Food Oxfordshire put it:

“We’ve put together this report as a really straightforward roadmap, detailing our journey, the steps we’ve taken, and lessons we’ve learned. Our hope is that it can serve as a useful guide for other food partnerships looking to do the same.”

Read and be inspired

We encourage everyone working in local food action to explore this report—wherever you are in your journey.

Oxfordshire’s experience is a reminder that building better food systems is possible, but it takes collaboration, persistence, and a willingness to learn along the way.

Read the full report here: Good Food Oxfordshire – Food Strategy and Action Plans Report