Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership

The Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership is a partnership of organisations across Greater Lincolnshire, working together for fairer, healthier, greener food for all, through sustainable local action.

We have over 60 food partners from across the food system, from food production, to education, to addressing food poverty. We are a Constituted Unincorporated Association with an advisory board of 12 drawn from the public, private and voluntary sectors.

We came into being in 2016 as a result of a local food research project at the University of Lincoln which led, in turn, to a Local Food Strategy that recommended the formation of a City Food Partnership. We went County-wide in 2020 as a result of an expressed need for food support in the more rural parts of the County. 

What we do

We provide a map of foodbanks and other organisations addressing food poverty to enable peole to locate organisations near to them in Lincolnshire. This helps reduce unecessary duplication within an area, enables individuals to access support and organsiations to signpost, and provides contact infromation so individuals and businesses can donate and offer other kinds of support.

We have mapped the diverse range of community gardens and growing opportunities across the county, and support networking and skills sharing.

We host good food movement-building events, such as supper clubs, community garden tours, and promote events of Food Partners across the county.

Our work with researchers and students is elaborating our understanding of food system challenges and opportunities in Lincolnshire, as well as drawing on the work of national organisations such as Sustain and Food Matters.  

We also take a convening role, for example engaging with local producers and food businesses to collaborate on direct routes to market; and developing short supply chains through grain networks by connecting farmers, millers and bakers interested in resilient, climate and nature friendly bread. 

We regularly contribute a good food perspective to wider conversations, for example, on the Lincoln Climate Commission, County Healthy Weight Partnership and South East Lincolnshire Climate Action Network, and engage with elected representatives on issues that are pertinent to their constituents.

We publish a regular blog and a column on food issues in a local magazine, as well as a newsletter and active profiles on social media.

Some more about recent and current projects here: 

https://lincolnfoodpartnership.org/current-projects/ 


Areas of expertise

Partnership & Collaboration

Awareness and Engagement

Active Food Citizenship

Tackling Food Poverty

Transforming Local Supply Chains

Lincolnshire has a fantastic example of how school food at Washingborugh Academy. Head teacher, Dr O'Rourke, developed the award winning TastEd framework for delivering sensory food education as part of the curriculum. The in-house school chef is the only Soil Association gold award holder in the world, and the school site includes a kitchen garden where all the children learn to grow food.

Foodbanks in Lincoln have formed a highly effective collaboration across the city to address household food insecurity and develop dignified access to good food alongside additional support such as healthy cooking clubs and budgeting courses.