The Sustainable Food Places Network (previously Sustainable Food Cities) brings together local food partnerships from across the UK.

In towns, cities, boroughs, districts and counties, these partnerships are driving innovation and best practice on all aspects of healthy and sustainable food.

Sustainable Food Places provide grants, advice and support to enable local food partnerships to drive changes to local policy and practice and to undertake campaigns, practical projects and public engagement initiatives

From obesity and diet-related ill-health to food poverty and waste, climate change and biodiversity loss to declining, prosperity and social dislocation, we believe food is not only at the heart of some of our greatest problems but is also a vital part of the solution.

We have created a national award scheme, based around a framework of 6 key issues for action, that benchmarks, motivates and recognises achievement.

1. Food Governance and Strategy - Taking a strategic and collaborative approach to good food governance and action.
2. Good Food Movement - Building public awareness, active food citizenship and a local good food movement.
3. Healthy Food for All - Tackling food poverty, diet related ill-health and access to affordable healthy food.
4. Sustainable Food Economy - Creating a vibrant, prosperous and diverse sustainable food economy.
5. Catering and Procurement – Transforming catering and procurement and revitalising local and sustainable food supply chains.
6. Food for the Planet - Tackling the climate and nature emergency through sustainable food and farming and an end to food waste.

"Food is a measure of how well or how badly we are doing as a society, and it should be measured by how well the poor are doing, not the rich."

Geoff Tansey, Panelist and Chair of the Fabian Commission on Food and Poverty and Curator of the Food Systems Academy

Sustainable Food Places has gone beyond proof of concept and kicked-off a new 5-year programme in 2020 which will focus on adapting and extending the model to new and more diverse places across the UK. The model is being replicated overseas with emerging similar national networks across Europe and strong networks in the US and Canada.

Examples of the local impact that local food partnerships are having through the SFP Network can be found on our website https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/

Local food partnerships are playing a crucial role in the response to the Covid-19 crisis and its impacts on rising food insecurity, viability of small food businesses and social isolation, organising rapidly in cooperation with local authorities and other local groups to address these challenges.

"In a context where sustainable food policy is largely absent at the national or local level, food activists have operated largely in isolation, often making faltering progress through a frustrating process of trial and error. SFC has fostered a culture where informal sharing of experience and ideas is now common practice… helping partnerships to accelerate progress made on areas that are complex, technical and require specialist insight."

University of the West of England (Evaluation Report, May 2019)

Sustainable Food Places is a partnership programme led by the Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farmin. It is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund.