The Isle of Wight Food Partnership unites sectors to address food insecurity while promoting sustainable, local food systems in a context of both rural and urban deprivation.
Partnership Goals:
The group is chaired by Isle of Wight Council Public Health, with a cross-sector steering group reporting to the Health & Wellbeing Board.
In 2022, Public Health and Adult Social Care and Housing held a Food Conference with external partners to understand the challenges facing our communities. This led to the development of a Food Strategy Group. The focus was to set up a pantry network across the Island. Also, a shared ambition to develop a central distribution hub to allow surplus food to be redistributed more evenly.
Over time, the group recognised a broader approach was needed to move beyond responding to crisis and start working towards a more sustainable food system to address food insecurity at its root.
What became clear is that no single organisation could fix this, we needed a coordinated system response and it was that shift in thinking that led to the formation of the Isle of Wight Food Partnership.
Our Island Food Partnership has made strong progress in bringing together partners, stakeholders and communities to develop a shared, sustainable food vision for the Isle of Wight.
A key early priority was ensuring alignment across council strategies. We delivered a series of initial presentations to colleagues across the wider Isle of Wight Council, raising awareness of the Food Partnership and embedding food as a cross-cutting priority within existing workstreams. This has helped to build internal momentum and create a foundation for a coordinated, whole-system approach.
Externally, we have actively engaged local stakeholders to co-produce our direction. We have held two well-attended stakeholder workshops, bringing together partners from across sectors to shape a shared vision and begin setting clear goals and objectives for sustainable food on the Island. These sessions have ensured that our approach reflects local needs, strengths and ambitions.
Through one of our Food Partnership focus groups, Community Growing, we have supported the dissemination of a survey mapping existing community growing spaces as well as identifying potential new allotment sites. This work is crucial in understanding local capacity, promoting food resilience, and unlocking opportunities for increased local food production.
We are also strengthening our understanding of food access challenges. In collaboration with community pantry service users, we are currently co-designing a survey to better understand the barriers people face in accessing healthy and affordable food. This insight will directly inform future interventions and ensure that lived experience is central to our decision-making.
As part of our wider work on obesity and malnutrition, we are developing a case study to contribute to a parliamentary debate on obesity in coastal communities. Alongside this, we will be presenting at the Association of Directors of Public Health (South East) Annual Conference, showcasing our progress towards a whole-system approach to healthier weight in a rural and coastal setting, with food as a key platform for change.
Finally, we are in the process of developing a dedicated Food Partnership logo. This is being shaped through consultation with stakeholders and the community to ensure it reflects the Island’s identity, values and ambitions.
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