Developing a Good Food Plan in Barking and Dagenham

The City of London’s historic wholesale food markets are planning to relocate to Barking and Dagenham from 2027. The local authority, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD), want to make sure there are local community benefits from this major development. They decided to create a Good Food Plan to help their residents access the food they need for happy, healthy lives.

LBBD teamed up with Sustain and Company Drinks to map the local food landscape, uncover the great work already happening in the borough, to understand the challenges and opportunities, and to propose a set of recommendations for a healthier, more climate-friendly, affordable, culturally appropriate local food system.

Company Drinks put together a powerful team of Resident Researchers, made up of local people who play key roles in Barking and Dagenham’s food community. The Resident Researchers spoke to 367 people from the local community to get their views on LBBD’s food as it stands, and to imagine what it could be in the future. This was combined with the results from an online survey to paint a picture of LBBD’s present and its possible future. This is what the community is calling for:

1. We need access to healthier, fresher food
2. The plan must be inclusive
3. We need to develop and celebrate Local Food Champions and Advocates
4. Affordability and the cost of living must be at the heart of the plan
5. We need to nurture a culture of Good Food Businesses and Enterprises
6. It’s essential to build trust, and grow long-term projects
7. We want more local food growing
8. We want more choice and cultural diversity

Sustain conducted a series of discussions with officers from across different council departments, to understand their priorities and constraints. Using this information, the calls from the community, and the combined experience of Sustain’s campaigners in working with local authorities, we developed a set of recommendations for the council to take forward. We focused on four key areas: Local governance and advocacy; Land, planet and produce; Better access to healthier, fresher, climate-friendly food; and Good Food Enterprise.

Our top priority actions were:

1. Establish and enable a food partnership that closely engages across the public, private, and voluntary sector; is inclusive and representative of the local community; and seeks to build capacity for community leadership.
2. Employ or fund a Community Growing Officer who works closely with community groups to enable more residents to grow their own food.
3. Realise the power of council procurement by forming an internal task and finish group and joining the London Circular Food Procurement Working Group.
4. Maintain Food For Life Silver standard in schools, and support BD Together’s efforts to increase the proportion of protein from vegetables and pulses in meals they serve.
5. Develop a markets strategy or plan to ensure local residents can access food and job opportunities that are coming to the borough, and to ensure that access to climate friendly food is enhanced.

You can read the full list of actions in the Good Food Plan. Since creating the report, LBBD’s food partnership has joined the Sustainable Food Places network, so work is already underway!

“It’s a pleasure to work with a local authority to embed food into their priorities, across council departments, and to make sure community voices are a really core part of how these decisions are made. The food partnership model is all about community participation, cross-sectoral collaboration, and a whole-systems approach. We’re over the moon that Good Food Barking & Dagenham have joined the SFP network: this is a cross-sectoral commitment to build a fairer, more sustainable food system for everyone.” – Bella Driessen, Local Action Officer, Sustain

Read the full report here.

Find out more about Sustainable Food Places.