Our ways of working

Since 2013, the Sustainable Food Places programme has been the driving force behind the UK’s rapidly growing place-based food partnership movement. We are a partnership programme coordinated by three national food charities -  Food Matters, the Soil Association and Sustain -  the Sustainable Food Places programme supports a national network of food partnerships who are making healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where people live.

Local Food Partnerships

We support local food partnerships to grow and prosper by providing support, guidance and training.

A framework for Systems Level Change

We provide a framework for systems level change by benchmarking success through our SFP Awards programme and guiding action through our six theme framework.

A National Network of Food System Stakeholders

We connect stakeholders across a disparate national food system by convening and coordinating a national network of food system stakeholders and by joining up work across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Tools, Guidance & Training on Community Participation and Participatory Processes

We put communities at the heart of local food decision-making by providing tools, guidance and training on facilitating meaningful, iterative community participation.

Facilitating Peer-to-Peer Learning and Exchange

We facilitate peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange by convening spaces for learning and sharing of good practice and by facilitating peer-to-peer support through our coordinator mentoring programme.

Local and National Strategies and Policy Influencing

We drive change at a strategic and policy level by supporting partnerships to develop local food strategies and action plans and by advocating on behalf of local partnerships at a national level.

Good Food Movement Campaigns

We fuel the growth of a nation wide good food movement by leading national campaigns that empower, inform and inspire local food action.