Hackney Food Partnership

What we do

We successfully influenced the local Green Party to include support for the HFP and develop a local Food Strategy and Action Plan in their manifesto for the recent local elections. In the longer term our ambition is to work with the council on the development and implementation of this borough-wide food strategy.  In the meantime, we have identified and invited relevant and interested local food system partners to join us, but our group is currently run by volunteers, and an interim steering group is in place, until elections can be held.

Over the next 6 months we plan to:

• Develop stronger links with the existing Hackney Food Network members and through the broader Food Partnership to connect ongoing work on food insecurity with wider food projects and aims (including Sustainable Hackney and also the Right to Grow campaign which was recently supported by Hackney Council).
• Widen the Hackney Food Partnership group to other stakeholders ensuring it reflects the diversity of the borough and the breadth of its food activity. This will involve continuing the call-out for interested stakeholders for a commitment to care and representation in steering group meetings. Importantly we will be actively engaging with organisations such as Young Hackney and Hackney Youth Parliament to ensure that the voices and perspectives of young people are included, as well as various cultural and religious groups that represent Hackney’s multicultural community.
• Host a borough-wide event to map our collective strengths, identify shared aims, and form initial working groups based on interest and expertise.
  • This will allow us to holistically map current food projects and initiatives, building on work started with the help of UCL students as part of the ‘Just Space project: food justice and the caring city’ with partners Sustainable Hackney and HFP.
  • Through these activities we will co-develop our shared action plan that aligns with SFPs six key themes and is grounded in our local context – updating the Hackney Food Charter and Terms of Reference to represent our growing group of stakeholders and community interests, as well as an outline of how decisions will be made.