About Food Power

Tackling food poverty through people-powered change

Food Power aims to strengthen the ability of local communities to reduce food poverty, through solutions developed in partnership and with the support of peers from across the UK. Our goal is to transform the way that people experiencing food poverty access support so they can create long-term, sustainable lives that are free from hunger.

We support coordinated approaches to tackling food poverty in over 80 areas across the UK, tailored to the particular locality and unique policy contexts across the four nations. The four year programme is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and is led by Sustain and Church Action on Poverty.

Our work

We support alliances to tackle the root causes of food poverty, to give voice to people experiencing food poverty, and to evaluate and share what works well. The programme includes four main work streams:

• Supporting local food poverty alliances: We help build capacity and facilitate sharing of experiences between communities, with local empowerment at the programme's core. We run a network of peer mentors to help other areas establish food poverty alliances, secure resources to turn commitments into reality and develop action plans.
   
• Learning and sharing good practice: At the heart of our programme is the exchange of ideas and learning, facilitated by programme staff, but equally through peer-to-peer learning across the network and the co-production of information and resources. This includes regional learning networks, webinars, action toolkits, an annual conference and other resources.
   
• Involving experts by experience: We support the active engagement within the programme of individuals who have experienced food poverty. We are piloting models of involvement in local areas and supporting groups through a combination of capacity-building training, mentoring and resources.
   
• Evidencing what works at the local level: We assist local areas to evidence the impact of their work. This includes advice and support on robust monitoring and evaluation methodologies from staff and academics, as well as piloting different tool and models.

What do we mean by food poverty?

Food poverty, or household food insecurity, encompasses both the affordability of food, as well as its availability within local communities. It is vital that household food insecurity is seen as being driven by both the affordability and availability of a healthy diet. Food poverty has multiple negative impacts on individuals’ health and wellbeing. It is important to ensure that people can access a healthy diet in a socially acceptable way and have sufficient certainty about how they will secure a healthy diet for themselves and their households. Food Power uses the definitions below to set out both the scope and impact of food poverty.

Read more about Sustain's work on food poverty.