Brighton & Hove Food Partnership

What we do

As a partnership we have:

• Developed a Food Strategy Action Plan.
• Founded 75 community gardens, planted 200 orchards, and use 3000+ allotment plots.
• Transformed the lives of 2,000+ people with mental health issues through gardening.
• Reduced obesity among children - 26.1% of the city’s Year 6 pupils are overweight/obese compared to 34.2% nationwide.
• Increased breastfeeding rates – 75% in the city vs a 50% national average.
• Awarded Healthy Choice Awards to 200+ organisations for their healthy-eating options.
• Enabled 1,167 households to compost food waste through community composting schemes.
• Addressed social isolation through food with almost half a million meals shared annually.
• Established 170 volunteer-led community food projects.
• Worked with public and private sector caterers, collectively serving over 2 million meals monthly, to improve food standards.
• Developed award-winning Minimum Buying Standards for council catering contracts.
• Embraced accreditation schemes such as Food for Life and MSC Certification for many public and private sector catering establishments.
• Given evidence to the House of Commons select committees on sustainable food (2011) and food waste (2017), and at the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry on hunger and food poverty (2014).
• Embedded food into 8 major local policy documents, including the City Plan.
• Embraced innovative food businesses including Ethical supermarket HISBE; community pub The Bevy and food market Street Diner.
• Increased local produce usage through Community Supported Agriculture schemes for vegetables (Fork and Dig It), meat (Sheep Share and Pig Share), and supported local distributors including Fin and Farm and The Sussex Peasant.
• Founded community enterprises such as The Real Junk Food Project’s ‘pay-as-you-feel’ shop and cafes, Stoneham Bakehouse and the Community Kitchen.
• Piloted the national Sugar Smart campaign.
• Adopted a Planning Advisory Note encouraging developers to include space for food-growing in new developments, updated in 2021.
• Featured as best-practice case studies in the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs British Food Plan and within the Department of Health’s Childhood Obesity Plan.
• Led the city’s emergency food response to the pandemic and crowdfunded to raise over £50,000 to buy food and essential supplies.
• Helped kickstart 9 affordable food projects
• Become the UK’s first Gold Sustainable Food Place

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Areas of expertise

 🗸 Cookery Education

 🗸 Food Growing