From local action to London-wide impact: The legacy of Food Roots 2

Origanlly funded by the Greater London Authority (GLA) in 2021, the first Food Roots programme supported ten food partnerships across the capital, to tackle food insecurity. The programme expanded during the height of the cost-of-living crisis, offering emergency grants to food partnerships across London, to boost staff capacity for strategic coordination.

Building on these foundations, Food Roots 2 learning programme was expanded to support 21 local food partnerships across London, and run by a partnership of coalition of organisations including Sustain, The Social Investment Consultancy, Food Matters, and the First Love Foundation, with Citizen’s Advice providing Healthy Start training to frontline teams. Funding was used to invest in dedicated coordinator roles for each partnership, enabling more joined-up work to tackle food insecurity and support Londoners experiencing financial hardship.

The project had four main objectives:

• Sustainable support out of food poverty: including cash first, wrap-around approaches and referral to advice services. 
• Increase in Healthy Start: increasing visibility of the scheme and better linking between statutory and voluntary sector work.
• Strengthened partnerships: developing stronger relationships between local authorities, community food providers to embed solutions to food challenges. 
• Sustainable funding for food partnerships: improving the ability of food partnerships to access sustainable external funding.

Building a Community of Practice

The learning programme was developed using co-design to create a learning curriculum, which brought coordinators and partnerships together through a mix of in-person and online sessions. These included site visits, 'spotlight' sessions where partnerships could share good practice, themed workshops, peer mentoring, and informal coffee mornings. These elements of collaboration and support were seen as essential to building momentum and sharing practical ideas. Many participants reflected on how valuable it was to be able to step out of their local silos and connect across boroughs. One participant said:

“Bringing partnerships together across a region like London is invaluable for so many reasons, but it is enough that we can feel isolated. We work collaboratively at the local/borough level, and it just makes sense to connect across the city of London/greater London”

A Legacy That Continues

While Food Roots 2 may have drawn to a close, its legacy continues. This includes a shared toolkit capturing learnings from the programme to support both current and future coordinators, as well as continued collaboration across London’s food partnerships through the set up of a regional London Sustainable Food Places network, rise up email group and WhatsApp group. This continuation of contact across London food partnerships was seen as key:

“The connections and learnings that have come from FR2 have been incredibly valuable, it's so reassuring to know we’ll still have this after the programme”

Food Roots 2 also invested in a robust independent evaluation. As well as capturing learning from the programme and supporting partnerships to understand how to measure their impact, the evaluation intends to provide an evidence base and foundation for partnerships to demonstrate the impact of their work. The evaluation is due to be published in autumn 2025 – so watch this space!

By growing sustainable, community-led solutions, Food Roots 2 has successfully illustrated how bringing together food partnerships can creating meaningful and sustainable change to local communities. We look forward to seeing these partnerships grow and adapt, ensuring that London remains a city where everyone has access to healthy, dignified food.

If you want to find out more about the legacy of Food Roots and how you can get involved, contact isabel@sustainweb.org.uk