Food Partnership

We’re part of an exciting new development for Waltham Forest - a blossoming Food Partnership! A food partnership is an alliance of people, organisations, local council members and food businesses who want to help build a better local food system for everyone. There are some fantastic examples of Food Partnerships around the UK - see the Sustainable Food Places website for more on this.

Here in Waltham Forest, the food partnership is made up of 2 main networks: the Food Resilience Network (FRN), made up of local food aid organisations, and the Food Growers Network (FGN), made up of local food growers. There’s potential for more - a small food businesses networks, a community meals network, or even networks for community composting, backyard poultry feed or scrumping.

The incredible work that these network members do is helping to create a better food system for everyone. By coordinating these networks, sharing resources and providing support to members, we aim to create a linked up, localised food system.

Multiple factors are compounding the current cost of living crisis, with Covid and the war in Ukraine exposing the fragility of our international food supply chains. Global heating is already making itself felt in higher olive oil, sugar and wheat prices, those high costs being pushed throughout the system, making all our food shopping more expensive and severely impacting the health and security of our most vulnerable community members.

Robust, localised food networks help our community build towards food security and food sovereignty. As the Food Partnership continues to develop we will share updates and invitations on ways to get involved.