The Sustainable Food Places Network comes together to celebrate over a decade of brilliant work!

Nestled amongst the beautifully eclectic University of Birmingham Campus buildings, on a particularly autumnal day last week, the Sustainable Food Places Network came together to celebrate over a decade of incredibly hard work, and an ever-growing membership of over 111 strong. 

Timeline of the last 13 year of Sustainable Food Places. 

There was brilliant representation from nearly all four Nations and all of our partner organisations. We felt a palpable hunger amongst the delegates to chat, network, and share experiences and tips. 

Our English cohort - photo credit: Leora Bermeister

Some of our shining Scottish cohort - photo credit: Leora Bermeister

Some of our wonderful Welsh cohort - photo credit: Leora Bermeister

We took this opportunity to announce the fantastic news that we have received a further three years of funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; who have been a constant support to us since 2011 when Sustainable Food Cities was first conceived of. You can read more about the particulars of this next phase of funded work here. 

Bronze, Silver & Gold Award Winners 2024 - photo credit: Chris Little

We held an awards ceremony complete with a sit-down dinner, our in-house DJ Lily O'Mara Adembesa, and plenty of merriment to go round. You can read more about the latest award winners and what wonderful work they have done in order to achieve these great accolades here. 

Photo credit: Leora Bermeister

The bulk of our conference programme focused on workshops dealing with the three pillars of work we wish to take forward for the next three years' funded phase of work. These three foci are:

• ensuring that community priorities are driving local food partnership action and influencing National policies
• amplifying community voices and pushing for better representation in food partnership work, also celebrating the diversity amongst and within places
• supporting partnerships to become financially sustainable and growing the network

We had great conversations with food partnerships who brought forth fabulous ideas about how their influence can be further enhanced through collective and regional work, how to best work with academics, and echoes that the essential work of food partnerships ought to be better recognised and valued across the UK. 

We thank everyone who attended, and truly believe that this gathering represents a large portion of the beating heart of UK food activism. We look forward to coming together again in a few short weeks at the Day of Celebration and Action in Westminster. 

FURTHER PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT - please credit the photographers