Case studies: North East

North East Sustainable Food Alliance

The North East Sustainable Food Alliance (NESFA) was established during the Covid pandemic by the original three food partnerships in the area to facilitate better joined up working across the region. They secured funding to work with Food and Drink North East (FADNE) to develop the Good Food Economy project. This was designed to raise awareness of the local food system and grow the sustainable food economy in the North-East, increase local businesses’ understanding of food sustainability and trial a new way of working regionally. This led to market research of consumer priorities and opportunities for businesses to promote their work.

This project was followed by a regional Dynamic Procurement Project funded by The Dixon Foundation. This project engaged regional anchor institutions (public sector) to explore developing a food hub, enabling the use of technology to engage local suppliers into mainstream public sector food frameworks. The project ended in the summer of 2024. While a hub was not created, it raised interest in the concept and opportunities through new national frameworks such as the Crown Commercial Service (Buying Better Food and Drink). NESFA now covers 10 NE local authorities and is supported by Sustainable Food Places.

A Gold award for Middlesbrough

Awarded the Sustainable Food Places Gold Award in October 2024, Good Food Middlesbrough brings together organisations from across the voluntary and community sector, public health, education and the local authority, ensuring that a wide range of perspectives and lived experience inform priorities and action. This inclusive, place-based approach supports fair decision making and ensures activity is rooted in local need. Equity is a core focus of the Food Action Plan, with emphasis on tackling food insecurity and improving access to affordable, healthy and sustainable food.

Actions target communities experiencing the greatest disadvantage, including low-income households, families accessing emergency or low-cost food, children and young people, carers and people facing health inequalities.

Representatives from across Middlesbrough Council - including public health, sustainability, planning and resident support services - actively contribute to support the Food Partnership, demonstrating the council’s continued commitment to food system change and the value it places on the partnership.

County Durham: A holistic approach to food

Food Durham is County Durham’s Food Partnership, hosted by the Outdoor and Sustainability Education Specialists (OASES). The food partnership raises awareness of the importance of food and how it relates to the economy, the environment, health and well-being, and issues of social justice. The aim is to bring about change to the food system by working in partnership with public, private and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors across County Durham.

Food Durham is very much a team effort. Everyone with an interest in food has a part to play, whether that is through creating a community garden or developing a sustainable local food procurement policy. The partnership is a member of the Sustainable Food Places network, and has a Sustainable Food Places Silver Award, which recognises the good work done by its many partners, large and small. It is also a member of the North East Sustainable Food Alliance (NESFA)13, which is an umbrella organisation for established and fledgling food partnerships in North East England.

Cumberland: Community Food Growing and food resilience

Cumberland’s Community Food Growing and Resilience workstream, chaired by a community member and supported by partners and residents, increases opportunities for people to collaborate and grow food. It strengthens use of formal allotments, supports new initiatives and influences planning policy, ensuring food growing is embedded in neighbourhoods. The workstream champions the principles of Incredible Edible and our funded Garden Organic Master Composters scheme, alongside six community green hubs led by Groundwork.

The Drigg “Licence (Right) to Grow” site on council land has gone from strength to strength, providing space for residents to grow food, linking with the local warm hub, supplying fresh produce to residents and composting on-site, creating a circular system.

Another site, supported through a peppercorn rent, is operated by Growing Well. Using a therapeutic horticulture model, it supports people with mental health conditions while following organic principles across six glasshouses, stores, outbuildings and a classroom. They are commissioned to provide produce for affordable food hubs and also supply local greengrocers, farmers markets and veg box schemes, increasing access to healthy, affordable food.

Stockton: Food growing

Stockton Borough Council supports or facilitates several food growing projects that benefit residents and the local food environment.

This includes a Northern Powergrid funded project which has helped to bring unused allotments back into use in Thornaby. The council is working with local VCSE partners, including Cultivate Tees Valley, Sprouts and Cornerhouse, to involve residents and schools in growing and cooking food. The long-term aim is for the allotments to be transferred into community use.

The council also funds the peer-led Grow Your Own Stockton programme with Groundwork North East & Cumbria, which increases people’s knowledge of growing and cooking, using local accessible community spaces. The programme provides people with a better understanding on how to locally source produce, grow, cook and eat well and in turn helping those on low incomes to have greater access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food.

South Tyneside Open Collective (STOC): Let’s cook

As part of the Let’s Cook initiative, the STOC Demo Kitchen pilot aimed to bring sustainable, healthy, and affordable cooking to the heart of South Tyneside. At the ‘This is South Tyneside Parade Day’ festival, the kitchen showcased planet-friendly recipes, zero-waste cooking and simple ways to make whole ingredients taste amazing. Hosted by the council’s events team, in partnership with Nourish Food School and Big Local Jarrow/ Dandelion Partnership, the demo kitchen offered hands-on learning, from foraging and home-blended teas to creative ways to use surplus ingredients.

The demo kitchen was more than just cooking, it’s part of the borough’s wider Good Food Movement, connecting people, promoting sustainable eating, supporting local products and tackling food waste. By bringing these experiences to public events, they aim to inspire more South Tyneside residents to cook, share, and enjoy food in ways that are accessible, sustainable as well as delicious.

Stockton Food Power Network and charities

Stockton Food Power Network (SFPN) meets to discuss ideas, advice, inspiration, resources and best practice. The SFPN project coordinator supports those interested in opening community pantries, offering advice, including start up, connections and advice on securing food supply. Additionally, following feedback from the council’s anti-poverty group, the Project Coordinator added an easy ‘step by step guide’ on how to access local food banks by referral to demystify the food voucher referral process and provide residents with clear information on how to receive emergency food support.

SFPN also values communication and has previously created a WhatsApp group for organisations to share events, food resources and advice and information on details of foodbanks, community pantries, eco shops, the Bread and Butter Thing food hubs and free/low cost food cafes and drop ins. With over 20,000 views, these information leaflets connect residents with the right food support at the right time. To increase reach one of Catalyst’s Community Interpreter volunteers has translated the SPFN leaflets into Arabic.

Cumberland: Engaging people with lived experience

Cumberland’s Food Security Network engages people with lived experience to shape priorities and delivery models, ensuring support is grounded in real need and delivered in a dignified, accessible way. Partners collaborate to deliver on local projects and impact is monitored regularly.

Community food projects can access the council’s food purchasing framework, to bulk buy affordable food through a local wholesaler. The council also coordinates the Food Security Network, chaired by a local foodbank, which brings together community based affordable food providers to share information, strengthen coordination and identify emerging needs. Supported by the network, the council uses local research findings to inform targeted action. In addition, the council runs referrer networking events to ensure frontline workers can signpost residents to the most appropriate support. The council also provides funding to help groups develop new affordable food models, including recent investment in Carlisle Foodbank’s new community shop and café, which supports residents to move up the food ladder and access dignified, low cost food options and reducing reliance on the foodbank.

Hartlepool: Anti-poverty strategy

Hartlepool Borough Council is working in partnership, as part of a cross sector multiagency group who have developed an anti-poverty strategy for 2025 to 2030, which includes a rights-based approach to addressing root causes of food poverty. The priorities include: giving the best start for the next generation, making work a route out of poverty, effective influence, good homes, and maximising income and residents voices in decision making processes.

The strategy has been developed through the Hartlepool Poverty Action group, by people with lived experience of poverty and people/organisations with the expertise to reduce poverty. The priorities of the anti-poverty strategy were informed by the North East Child Poverty Commission’s document ‘No time to wait: a blueprint for tackling child poverty’. It addresses the wider determinants of health and dovetails with the Hartlepool Food Partnership who are one of the contributors to the poverty strategy.

Sunderland: The Living Wage

Sunderland City Council has long championed fair pay, setting a strong example for employers across the North East. Since 2014, it has paid all employees the Real Living Wage (RLW), and in 2020 became accredited by the Living Wage Foundation as a UK Living Wage Employer. This reflects its belief that work should provide a decent standard of living, not just a basic wage.

For the council, the Real Living Wage is more than policy; it signals to current and prospective employees that it is a fair, responsible employer.

In April 2026, a coalition of Sunderland businesses, charities, and public sector organisations renewed its commitment by launching a three-year action plan.

The Making Sunderland a Living Wage City Action Group aims to grow accreditation, retain employers, broaden it to include Living Hours and Living Pension and to embed the Living Wage across funding, commissioning and procurement. Sunderland currently celebrates 62 accredited Real Living Wage employers across the city.

Northumberland: Food access for older and disabled people

Northumberland County Council supports a wide range of interventions designed to ensure older and disabled residents can access nutritious food and receive the support needed to eat well at home.

The council has strong referral pathways into food support services through close partnership working with Adult Social Care teams, health professionals, hospital discharge teams and a network of community organisations. Support Planners signpost residents to appropriate provision, including community lunch clubs, hot meal offers and home delivered meals.

The council provides grants and funding to local voluntary and community sector organisations that deliver meals directly into people’s homes. They also commission community centres to provide hot food offers specifically for older and disabled people to help reduce isolation, support independent living and ensure residents have reliable access to daily nutritious meals.

The council funds essential household equipment and adaptive gadgets that support disabled residents with cooking, food preparation and eating safely at home.

They also work with care providers to strengthen food and nutrition support within homecare and social care settings, including improving training and guidance for care workers.

South Tees: Infant feeding

Work in South Tees continues to expand UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation across services. Funding for Maternity Support Workers with antenatal programmes and postnatal wards at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust ensured mothers received breastfeeding support before discharge. It also supported the creation of a South Tees Tongue Tie Clinic, delivered through partnership working across maternity, local authorities and health visiting teams. Both services are now embedded and sustained within the Trust.

Breast pump loan schemes operate across maternity, health visiting and Family Hubs, with partners working to standardise equipment and improve milk production outcomes. Training on infant feeding is also being developed with local GPs.

The ‘Mamazing’ breastfeeding campaign featured 12 local mothers sharing experiences and promoted local support services. The campaign celebrated partnership working between Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council’s Public Health and marketing teams, and Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, using targeted advertising to help normalise breastfeeding and improve uptake. Breastfeeding groups also take place within various wards including targeting wards with higher deprivation and people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

North Tyneside: Community Approach to Healthy Start

North Tyneside Public Health developed a targeted community-led approach to increase uptake of the Healthy Start scheme after identifying that uptake was low, reversing a sustained decline in uptake without additional funding.

Public Health mapped high priority wards using deprivation, eligibility and demographic data to focus resources where need was greatest, while maintaining a universal offer. The team embedded promotion into existing pathways, reducing stigma and increasing access. Partners included the 0–19 Children’s Public Health Service, Early Years settings, VCSE organisations, the Food Partnership, Business Forum and the Healthy Weight Alliance.

Phase one involved face to face engagement in trusted settings, addressing digital exclusion, whilst phase two expanded engagement to other settings. The team worked with nurseries and childminders through the Early Years Network to reach families of toddlers, aligning Healthy Start promotion with 15-hour free childcare eligibility. Retailer engagement highlighted significant limitations in awareness and acceptance of the digital card, so targeted education was delivered and a card reader was provided to social supermarkets through Feeding Britain.

Digital training and resource packs were developed, enabling partners and services to continue promotion independently.

South Tees Redcar & Middlesbrough, Eat Well Schools

Public Health South Tees, in partnership with Redcar and Cleveland Environmental Health team, are working with external catering companies and schools to improve school food environments, to encourage healthy eating among pupils, staff and families.

The Eat Well Schools Award takes a whole system approach to healthy eating within schools, covering food quality, education, and leadership and culture, with bronze, silver, and gold levels to support continuous improvement.

Participating schools are supported to meet national school food standards, provide inclusive menus that meet cultural and dietary requirements, and create positive dining environments where children can enjoy healthy meals, with menus audited and feedback provided to caterers.

Schools develop wider initiatives as they progress through the award, such as consulting with pupils and parents on menus, reducing food waste, and integrating healthy eating into PHSE education.

Schools must evidence they meet the required criteria, including registering to the Welcome to Breastfeed scheme.

North Tyneside: Whitley Bay Food and Nutrition

Whitley Bay Food and Nutrition is a secondary provision delivered in partnership with Whitley Bay High School and Moorbridge Pupil Referral Unit. It helps students cook and prepare a range of foods for breakfast, lunch, and takeaway-style meals. Sessions focused on cooking in large batches, enabling attendees to take food home for themselves and their families while also developing practical cooking skills, health and safety awareness, and a greater understanding of food and nutrition.

Students used a variety of tools and equipment while working with a wide range of ingredients. For many students, this was the first time they had attempted to recreate “takeaway” meals using healthier ingredients.

Students enjoyed using the new equipment, such as a pizza oven and a BBQ grill. These were used during outdoor cooking sessions, where they invited friends and family to come along and enjoy the food they had made.

Gateshead: Holiday activities and food (HAF)

Gateshead delivers a broad and inclusive HAF programme that extends support beyond statutory eligibility. 15% of places are allocated for children not in receipt of benefits related free school meals; 3% is reserved for the Jewish community, and the remaining 12% is allocated at schools’ discretion. Additional corporate funding supports further provision, including enabling full participation for pupils with SEND.

HAF Plus is a targeted programme for teenagers, codesigned with young people following research with Northumbria University that identified very low participation among 12–16 year olds. It offers age appropriate activities such as bowling, cinema trips, sport and volunteering opportunities, alongside free meals meeting School Food Standards. Teenagers receive a 7 day all zones travel pass and meal vouchers for participating retailers (restricted to school food standards) helping remove financial barriers identified by teenagers themselves. Activities are booked through a dedicated HAF Plus app, improving accessibility and choice, and young people contribute to ongoing evaluation.

Gateshead: Making culturally appropriate food accessible

Gateshead Food Partnership works with public and voluntary organisations to increase access to culturally appropriate food and reduce diet related health inequalities. In 2025, Gateshead Council commissioned research on the food needs of refugee and asylum seeking communities. Recommendations are being taken forward via the City of Sanctuary working group and will inform future council funding and priorities.

Projects include Gateshead MECC and the Foodbank, which created easy, low cost recipe cards using accessible, culturally appropriate ingredients. The Comfrey Project partnered with Men’s Pie Club to reduce social isolation and build food skills. North East Diversity, Education and Solidarity delivers community meals and cooking events with local charities, serving over 2,000 meals in a year.

The Women’s Wellbeing Café provides a safe cooking and wellbeing space for women from South Asian backgrounds, including health checks, foraging and nature walks. A Newcastle University lecturer has formed a partnership with Peace of Mind to support refugee families offering peer support to parents of autistic children facing low income and limited access to culturally appropriate food.

County Durham: The Healthy Weight Declaration

In 2025, Durham County Council signed the Healthy Weight Declaration, committing to a whole systems approach to healthy weight that addresses food environments, inequality and the commercial determinants of health. Supported by Food Active, the Declaration provides a framework to embed healthy weight considerations across policy, planning, commissioning, communications and partnerships.

Building on the county’s Healthy Weight Plan, and aligning with the Joint Local Health Wellbeing Strategy, and the council’s wider sustainable food ambitions, action has focused on creating healthier everyday settings and shifting local systems. This includes progress on healthier food procurement, and embedding healthy weight principles within schools, family settings, and workplaces. Early years and school settings are engaging ‘nourish ambassadors’ to promote healthier food provision, physical activity and positive food cultures.

The Declaration has also strengthened a compassionate, inclusive approach to weight. Annual monitoring supports accountability and long term change towards healthier, fairer food environments across County Durham.

Sunderland: Healthy Plates

A new city-wide initiative, Healthy Plates, will bring together Sunderland food businesses to explore how small, practical menu changes can help create healthier places to eat across the city.

It is launching with local food businesses to test changes to menu layout, ingredients, portion balance, cooking methods, and the way food is presented and promoted. The aim is to make healthier choices easier and more appealing without compromising on flavour or the identity of local businesses.

The pilot supports Commitment 6 of Sunderland’s Healthy Weight Declaration: creating healthier food environments. The project has been designed to work with businesses, recognising the realities of running a kitchen and serving diverse customers.

It will be promoted through activities, including a Restaurant-Style Week, giving residents the chance to find participating venues and the ambition is to scale up the approach so all food businesses can engage in this initiative.

Newcastle: Oral health with refugees and sanctuary seeker communities

In August 2025, a multi-agency “Welcome to Newcastle” event brought together newly arrived refugees and sanctuary seekers to help them understand local health, nutrition and oral hygiene services. Many families were unfamiliar with the UK healthcare system including how to register for dental care or what to expect. The Oral Health Promotion Coordinator shared simple messages from “Delivering Better Oral Health”, on sugar content, affordable “tooth friendly” snacks and how to register with NHS dentists.

Translated materials and practical props helped bridge language gaps, while take-home resources supported families living in temporary accommodation or facing food insecurity. The event showed how hands-on, culturally sensitive support can help families feel more confident navigating health services.

South Tyneside Open Collective (STOC): Local Food Vouchers

Delivered through the Household Support Fund, the STOC Local Food Voucher Scheme supported working families while strengthening South Tyneside’s independent food economy. Members of Hospitality & Hope’s community shops received £50 in local food vouchers for butchers, bakers and greengrocers in South Shields.

This injected nearly £8,000 into small, local food businesses during a financially challenging post- Christmas period, while enabling families to access fresh and artisanal food close to home. Shopping locally reduced transport emissions and helped build relationships between residents and traders.

Businesses experienced new customers, repeat visits and a stronger sense of community connection. The project demonstrated how targeted, communityled investment can deliver economic, social and environmental benefits - supporting dignity, choice and resilience.

In 2026 STOC are collaborating with Connected Caring to roll out the Local Food Voucher project, supporting unpaid carers in South Shields, Jarrow & Hebburn and injecting £13.5K into the local food economy.

Gateshead: From Gardens to Gatherings

Gateshead Council is linking community food activity with town centre regeneration, inclusive events and support for small food enterprises.

“From Gardens to Gatherings” was a celebration of food growing attracting over 1,500 residents and 20 organisations. The event promoted local food production, volunteering and food skills through workshops, demonstrations and family activities.

Delivered jointly by the Food Partnership Coordinator (Public Health) and the Council’s Economic Development and Events teams, the programme showcased diverse cultural, plant-based and nutritious food from Gateshead based, resident led businesses and gave work experience opportunities for students from Gateshead College.

Work with the Events Team is ongoing to provide healthier, more sustainable catering at all council events. Small enterprises, including for example, refugee led caterer Samosa Sisters, have been actively supported to strengthen confidence, visibility and grow. BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead has hosted cultural celebrations including community Iftars, Holi, and Nowruz, supported by the council through funding, community links and promotion.

Newcastle, Sustainability awards at Christmas markets

In 2025, Newcastle City Council piloted a scheme to recognise traders who make their practice greener, cleaner and eco-friendly, giving them the chance to achieve a bronze, silver or gold Newcastle accreditation for sustainability. An online survey was distributed to all traders with scored questions across a range of different areas, including categories such as energy, waste, transport, food, packaging, procurement and policy alongside consultation to understand barriers in adopting sustainable actions. 13 traders achieved awards (six gold, and seven silver), and a further 30 were engaged with in person conversations, with three special recognitions given for Stand Out Small Business, Stand Out Food Trader and Stand Out High Street Trader.

Personalised feedback was provided to all traders on improvements to make their businesses more sustainable, and the council is looking to continue to work with local traders at markets including the weekly Quayside market to expand engagement on sustainability in the lead up to Christmas markets.

County Durham: REfUSE

REfUSE works with young Waste Warriors who believe good food should be eaten, not wasted. They help children understand food waste, build practical skills to make changes in their own lives, and gain confidence to advocate for better food systems in their schools and communities.

Through their award winning primary school programme, Eat Smart, designed by BIND UK. pupils become Waste Warriors who lead food waste audits, deliver assemblies, and work with decision makers - including caterers - to improve how food is served and valued in school. This hands on approach gives pupils greater ownership of their kitchens and dinner halls, boosts wellbeing, and strengthens environmental awareness.

BIND has been delivering its Eat Smart project in Newcastle since 2018, engaging 12 schools per year in Newcastle, reaching 3,700 pupils.

Newcastle. Managing surplus food

Newcastle City Council recognises that reducing food waste is essential to meeting its local net zero ambitions. Food-related emissions will not fall fast enough without action on how surplus food is managed and redistributed across the city.

The council has developed a strategic partnership with FareShare North East, to reduce food waste while supporting community projects who can put this food to good use. By funding FareShare deliveries to community organisations, the council is now the largest single procurer of FareShare redistribution in the North East.

FareShare rescues surplus food and redistributes it to voluntary and community organisations that provide community food services. Newcastle’s approach is distinctive because it is underpinned by a three-year funding commitment, providing stability for FareShare and organisations and enabling partners to plan, build capacity, and putting surplus food back into communities.

Northumberland: Farming support

Northumberland’s Climate Change team works closely with the farming community to understand the context of Northumberland food production in relation to agriculture. Farming stakeholders support the messaging of local, sustainable food production and consumption, but the challenge of sourcing sustainable and balanced diets has been identified, and the council is keen to encourage more local growing of vegetables and fruit. The council convenes farm advisors through the Farming Officer Forum, helping farmers access expertise across areas such as soils, water management and environmental stewardship. Through the Farming Advisory Service (FAS) under the Northumberland Small Business Service, farmers receive tailored one‑to‑one guidance on business planning, productivity, sustainability and diversification, alongside grant funding to enable farm businesses to invest, expand and build resilience.

Through the FAS, farmers have been able to complete carbon audits, working to identify key areas to target with support and advice.

Darlington: Early years awards scheme

Darlington wants every child to flourish, and one way to support a healthy weight, and better health outcomes for everyone is by making it easier to choose healthier foods and drinks when eating outside of the home. This is why Darlington Borough Council has developed a healthy catering award scheme. Darlington also developed the Healthy Early Years Award which recognises and celebrates early years settings that create environments where children can develop healthy habits for life. It focuses on embedding sustainable approaches to physical activity, nutrition, oral health, emotional wellbeing, and family engagement to create a healthier support system around each child.

Darlington’s aim is for every child to grow up with strong foundations for a healthy future; the experiences children and their families have at this time can shape outcomes for the rest of their lives. The award criteria checklist is designed to support settings to look at their current practice, identify strengths, and highlight areas for further development. It encourages a whole-setting approach that involves staff, children, and families