Coronavirus Food Alert

Sustain campaigns for a healthy, fair and sustainable food system. This means a system that can survive shocks and be sustainable whilst ensuring that everyone can eat well. This means that much of Sustain's work is highly relevant in this time of pandemic.

Read Sustain's statement on coronavirus

These pages aim to communicate how the Sustain alliance is helping to ensure that people get the food they need during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. We will update this periodically. We are organising ourselves around some core themes:

Securing food for vulnerable people

This includes food for people on a low income; for children eligible for free school meals; and for those needing to self-isolate due to older age or medical risks. We are lobbying for national funds and for targeted local support to help vulnerable people buy or receive the food they need.

Supporting the local emergency response [LINK]

This includes our work with the Food Power, Sustainable Food Cities and London Food Link networks. We also report here on inspiring local initiatives, to help with replication. We will work to help community action to connect up with local authorities, funders and national government; and for money, advice and other resources to flow out to where these are needed, whilst promoting safety and good governance.

Securing food supply, diverse outlets, jobs and enterprises [LINK]

The national governments of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have introduced sweeping financial measures to support businesses and those who have lost their jobs or are in financial crisis. Sustain will look at ways to develop our work to help smaller farmers, food enterprises and market outlets, and their workers, where these may have been less well supported by national or local policy or by other means. Do see our new blog on 5 tips to support our farmers.

Funders and funding

Sustain has re-deployed staff from existing funded programmes to work on the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Our compassionate and flexible funders have provided the space to do so and we thank them for this. We also aim to advise on and facilitate funds for frontline and coordinated responses.

Learning from other places

We need to learn from other places affected by COVID-19 coronavirus, and those who are inherently better prepared to ensure everyone is resilient to food shocks. We are looking at how other countries and jurisdictions are tackling the challenges of keeping everyone supplied with sufficient food during this pandemic.