Hundreds gather at Westminster to pitch expansion of local food partnerships

A network of local food partnerships is meeting with MPs at Westminster today (13 November 2024), as they call upon the new Labour Government to help set up and support local initiatives across the UK. 

The local partnerships are part of the Sustainable Food Places (SFP) network – a social movement led the Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain – which aims to bring food partnerships from towns, cities, boroughs, districts and countries across the UK together.

According to the SFP, the number of local food partnerships within this model have been growing following the last few years of turbulence and in the absence of a unified, official food strategy.

During this meeting at Westminster, the group of 100+ partners looked to showcase their achievements in driving towards a fairer and more sustainable food system in a hope to encourage the Government to support their work through funding further partnerships.  

In addition, the network will be calling upon the Government to back a food strategy endorsed by the council and roll out a Good Food Bill in every nation – something which Scotland has already done.  

“We are calling for a better vision for the UK’s food and farming systems. Local Food Partnerships offer a proven model for addressing food inequalities in some of the most deprived communities and creating a fairer and more sustainable food system. We want the Government to seize the opportunity to adopt and fund Local Food Partnerships in every local authority and to support a Good Food Bill in each nation,”​ explained The Soil Association’s Sustainable Food Places programme manager, Leon Ballin.

The UK Government has already expressed a willingness to consider the role of local food partnerships as it sets out its plans for supporting and growing the UK’s food system and its communities in the future.

“The government will be considering the role of place-based initiatives, including Local Food Partnerships, as we develop our plans to support our farmers and food and drink businesses, boost food security, invest in rural communities, deliver growth, manage waste more effectively across the supply chain, improve resilience to climate change, and tackle biodiversity loss,”​ the Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern stated in reply to a recent Parliamentary Question (response to Lord Loomba on September 2024).

Ballin added that the SFP network is confident that the new Government is “acutely aware of the shortcomings of our food and farming system and the failure of the previous administration to address this”.​

The network will also be asking government to champion the cause of their local food partnership and local organisations in Parliament going forward, visit local food projects and enterprises to improve their understanding of the challenges faced by their constituents, and seek advice from their local food partnerships on how challenges can be addressed.

Commenting on the impact South Shields, a coastal town in South Tyneside, has seen since joining the network, Emma Lewell-Buck MP for South Shields said: “I am pleased that South Shields is part of the Sustainable Food Places network. I have long supported measures to alleviate hunger and food poverty and have always advocated for a more sustainable approach to food supply and access.​

“Thanks to my food insecurity bill we now have a true measurement of UK food insecurity. At present 14% of all households are food insecure, rising to 18% of those with children, that is households and children who regularly do not have access to nutritional food. In South Shields, four in every ten children are living in poverty.​

“Our food partnership is and will continue to make a difference. Every area should have one.”​

The SFP is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund.

In other news, the Advertising Standards Authority has identified misleading adverts from several UK wine investment businesses.​ Find out more here.​​