Sustainable Food Places briefing: Connecting local, place-based action to the national Food Strategy

Sustainable Food Places (SFP), a network of 123 food partnerships across the four nations of the UK, developed a briefing on what we need to see in an ambitious Food Strategy for the whole of the UK. The briefing calls for formal recognition of food partnerships in driving food systems change, mandating a strategic focus on food at all levels of government, and specific policy levers that can accelerate local action to ensure everyone has access to a healthy, fair and sustainable diet.

Local leadership can transform places —but national support and policy alignment are essential to achieve lasting food system transformation. This briefing sets out opportunities for national policies to create the enabling environment for place-based approaches and innovation to thrive.

Recommendations include (full list in the Briefing):

• Mandate the development of local or regional food strategies in every authority across the UK
• Provide long-term core funding to support the coordination of cross-sector food partnerships
• Ensure devolved governments and combined authorities are empowered and resourced to invest in sustainable, localised food systems
• Back an Essentials Guarantee ensuring that Universal Credit protects people from going without essentials, allowing a transition away from a reliance on charitable food aid to meet everyday food needs.
• Mandate the inclusion of food insecurity and food system resilience into national and local risk planning processes, Local Resilience Forum (LRF) and Emergency Preparedness Group (EPG) structures.
• Enable auto-enrolment for the Healthy Start/Best Start Schemes and Free School Meals, including for children in families on low incomes with no recourse to public funds, removing barriers to accessing vital children’s nutritional safety nets.
• Provide targeted investment and support to food SMEs and social businesses in order to boost the ‘green growth’ of supply of healthy, sustainable, and locally produced food and build community wealth.
• Deliver the government’s commitment on public food procurement to guarantee that 50% of public sector food is local and sustainable as well as ensuring meals reflect the Eatwell Guide, cultural needs and diverse preferences.