The Medway Food Partnership was established in July 2020. It is a collaborate network of local businesses, not-for-profit sector organisations and members of the community working to:
• Make sure everyone has access to sustainable and healthy food
• Build the public’s education and skills around healthy food
• Create healthier communities and better futures for our residents
Our aim is to support healthy and happy communities whilst ensuring that we create an eco-friendly and sustainable economy.
Our food partnership forms a subgroup of the public health’s healthy weight network. Therefore, its overarching aim is to reduce levels of obesity and overweight in the community. It does so through the actions of the key operational subgroups that make up the food partnership along with task and finish groups for specific projects. They are as follow:
1. Food security and emergency food support
2. Healthy food for all and education and skills
3. Climate change and the environment
4. Business and procurement
5. Oral Health
Having a wide range of subgroups ensures that healthy and sustainable food is on everyone’s agenda at all levels.
In January 2025 Medway Food Strategy was endorsed by Cabinet and an Action Plan estblish to work towards through 2025/2026.
All of our subgroups are actively promoting many great projects.
Chiefly, subgroup 1 This subgroup is tackling food poverty in Medway through innovative solutions. We’ve secured Household Support Fund funding to launch a Community Supermarket early in 2026, providing healthy, affordable, and sustainablefood. The supermarket will also offer wraparound services to help residents build self-sufficiency and financial resilience.
Subgroup 2 has successfully published culturally diverse Eatwell guides. and is currently working to educate community members on healthy eating and improving cooking skills by providing cookery courses for all ages. Find out more about our family cookery classes here. The group has also been working to map growing projects and are exploring funding opportunities to support these.
Subgroup 3 has been working on promoting the water Refill scheme with local businesses with support from City to Sea. Moving forward, this subgroup will be working towards reducing plastic waste, as well as linking in with the Public Health sugar smart initiative to promote a reduced consumption of sugar.Climate change and the environment
Subgroup 4 is currently working to encourage uptake of more food related businesses to join the Medway Food Partnership and increase healthy vending and water refill across all Medway Businesses. As part of this subgroup, we have also recently commissioned research in to whole school food work to establish the best solution to support Medway Schools.
Finally, having recently published the Oral Health Strategy, subgroup 5 is working to:
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Through the power of partnerships we make healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where people live.
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