10 Principles to guide the transition to Sustainable Food Systems

Hackney Food Partnership

The Partnership (HFP) brings together groups and individuals to help create a more healthy and sustainable food system, and to encourage and support action on food issues throughout the borough. 

HFP will build on what is going well in Hackney, such as the many local food growing initiatives, and address a wider range of issues such as ethical, healthy and sustainable food procurement, promotion of local shops and markets, development of supportive planning policies, and food poverty. We will also be helping to ensure the borough moves up London Food Link's Good Food for London league table and improves on its poor showing in each of the last four years.

Click here to view the Hackney Food Charter, a summary of the Partnership's aims. 

Sign up to receive news and updates from HFP or email Hackney Food Partnership to tell us about your initiative and how you'd like to get involved.

HFP working group meetings are usually on the 2nd Wednesday of the month – see the events page for location. These are open to all and focus on developing the Partnership's strategy and implementing its action plan. 

HFP also organises public meetings on specific issues, and to explore new projects or areas of work. Your ideas for public meetings are welcome and HFP are interested in working with others to hold events.

Food News

• 21/10/2015 In 'Beyond the Food Bank: London Food Poverty Profile 2015' London Food Link looks at what local authorities are doing to help the most vulnerable access good food.
  http://www.sustainweb.org/publications/london_food_poverty_profile_2015/

• 24/07/2015 The Urban Food Awards are back. To vote for your favourite local producers to be shortlisted for an award, visit London Food Link
• 25/02/2015 The London Assembly Environment Committee has published a report, Bag it or bin it?, on managing London’s domestic food waste 

• 22/12/2014 Hubbub has created a food waste manifesto calling for supermarkets, governments and individuals to make a change.

• 11/12/14 Annual report on UK household purchases of food and drink
• 08 12 14 APPG Inquiry into Hunger and Food Poverty in Britain launches it's final report

• 02/12/14 Food Waste House of Commons Library publication looks at food waste and initiatives to tackle food waste in the UK

• 28/11/2014 UK food waste – Historical changes and how amounts might be influenced in the future
• 27/11/14 Child Poverty Action Group report on understanding and reducing the use of food banks in the UK
• 31/10/14 Encouraging Healthier Takeaways in Low-income Communities - London Met. Univ. trial toolkit out for consultation

• 12/08/14 Sustainable Food Cities network's submission on food poverty issues to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hunger and Food Poverty

• 21/07/14 The Plan for Public Procurement: from 2017, central government will commit to buying fresh, locally sourced, seasonal food, through a new, simplified food and drink buying standard. This will open up £200 million of central government food procurement contracts to UK producers and suppliers, with an expectation that the wider public sector (schools, hospitals, police) will also use the framework.

• 14/07/14 A new discussion document highlights the overwhelming evidence for major changes to national food and farming policy: Square Meal: Why we need a new recipe for farming, wildlife, food and public health.
• 18/06/14 Hackney Council urged to commit to serving eggs only from cage-free hens. Support the demand, click this link: www.sustainweb.org/lfc/action. End cage cruelty now!
• 09/06/14 Below the Breadline: The relentless rise of food poverty in Britain
• 30/05/14 SkyWay are selling 3 types of HandMade in Hackney planters - good for micro food plots
• 23/05/14 Guidance launched to show how local authorities and businesses can reduce food and drink waste and save natural resources.
• 14/05/19 Edible estates - a practical guide published, to support food growing initiatives on land owned by social housing providers

• 15/05/14 'Going hungry? The human right to food in the UK' warns of a public health emergency as food becomes increasingly inaccessible for households

• 24/04/14 Sustain have published a useful guide to using planning policy to meet strategic objectives through community food growing

• Small or medium-sized business urged to sign up for free FoodSave support to prevent food waste and to divert surplus food to good use
• 08/03/14 From September 2014, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England will receive free school meals. But, in Hackney, will the food be healthy and sustainable?  And why won’t Hackney follow the example of neighbouring Islington and other boroughs with free school meals for all?
• 27/02/14 Draft Hackney Sustainable Food Charter prepared for launch at 2nd March Hackney Food Partnership meeting
• 25/02/14 Hackney’s Five Points Brewing Company has become the first UK brewery to become an accredited Living Wage Employer. The independent craft brewery also runs an apprenticeship scheme for 18-24 year olds, gets its energy from 100% renewable sources and is committed to reinvesting 5% of profits in local charities and community projects. Three cheers for Five Points!
• 20/02/14 Government report on food poverty is finally published, showing a growing demand for help to meet food needs
• 10/02/14 Urban Food Routes - funding and advice on offer to help London food SMEs that are making positive differences in their local communities 
• Camden and Islington comes top for organic school dinners - why can't Hackney join them with their procurement and provide school dinners amongst the greenest in the UK?
• The Soil Association’s Gold Food for Life Catering Mark was awarded to Caterlink who provide 16,000 meals a day to 98 primary schools in the borough of Camden and Islington. This is the highest accolade given out by the country’s largest organic organisation. Caterers with the gold Catering Mark use at least 15% organic ingredients, 5% free range, as well as a selection of ingredients produced locally, and offering healthiermenus amongst other criteria. For more info, see
  www.foodforlife.org.uk
• The Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust has produced a report on access to healthy food. It's based on North Kensington but its findings, including that large supermarkets are often the most expensive option for food shopping, are of relevance to food poverty issues in Hackney.
• A Steak in the Economy - 'Why food entrepreneurship is so important to the economy - and how best to support it' a report by Kitchenette includes an estimate that in the last two years Hackney Council has helped create 271 jobs in the food industry. Andrew Sissons, Head of Regeneration Delivery for Hackney Council, is quoted as saying that 'food is a cornerstone of our strategy for regeneration in Hackney'.
• Vision 2020 report sets out a UK roadmap for achieving zero food waste to landfill by 2020
• Fancy saving up to £50 a month on your food bill? Take the Waste Less Food, Save More Money Challenge! The challenge is open to all people who work or live in North London. Sign up here.
• 12/07/13 The School Food Plan is launched today, with aims of increasing the the role of food in school life and helping all schools to develop develop a strong food culture. It also hopes to help divert some of the £1bn parents spend on packed lunches back into schools. See the press release here but note academies are not covered by local authority regulation so parents, staff and local communities need to encourage their uptake of good practice.
• 11/07/13 Sustain has published a Guide to Good Food - Providing advice on what you can do, and ask others to do, to help make our food and farming system fit for the future
• 04/07/13 The UK Party Labour unveils its plan to promote a food-growing culture in Britain and launches a policy review on Feeding the Nation.
• 18/06/13  Another article on why food banks are not the best way to tackle hunger and poverty, and one on developing a post-food bank approach.
• 13/06/13 London's Mayor backs pilot to boost jobs and growth in London’s small food business sector, and Hackney's Unpackaged is taking part
• 27/03/13 London Assembly report  warns that, with thousands in our city already going hungry, food poverty is set to get much worse 
• 07/03/13 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is offering £5m over a period of three years as part of a new food funding strand. Applications are invited from organisations focused on understanding and investigating the critical role that food plays in wellbeing and the interplay between food, sustainability and poverty.
• 09/02/13 Food Matters publish a Building Local Food Systems Handbook, to unpick some the key food issues and enthuse people to explore, discover and act.
• 01/02/13 New report Growing Success: The impact of Capital Growth on community food growing in London calls for food growing spaces to be provided in all public spaces, all new residential development and in all schools.
• OrganicWick, a vegetable box scheme for Hackney Wick, run by local residents, is back in action.
• Global Food - Waste Not Want Not report shows how 50% of all food produced in the world can end up as waste, and the Sustainable Restaurant Association calculates that restaurants waste almost five times more food than the average UK household - 0.48kg per diner per meal vs. 0.1kg per diner per meal in the home.
• Hackney Homes encourage estate residents to grow their own food
• 30/09/12 Better Breakfast Guide launched – to help businesses serve more sustainable fare
• 25/09/12 What if I told you: you eat 3.496 litres of water? See this infographic about hidden/virtual water in our lives – food, washing, living etc. (just scroll down it). Also published in The Guardian.
• 22/08/12 A government publication, Space for food growing: Guide, highlights the health and environmental benefits that community food growing can bring and encourages people to 'spot a plot'.

Network

Hackney Food Grower's Network

People interested in Food

Hackney Food Map

Food Events

Links

10 Principles to guide the transition to Sustainable Food Systems

A guide to Olla pots

Building Local Food Systems: a Handbook

City and Hackney health and wellbeing profile (joint strategic needs assessment)

Collaboration between community food enterprise and the private sector & Case Studies

Community orchards: How to guide

CPRE local foods publications

Edible Estates - A good practice guide to food growing for social landlords

Edible Geography and Food: An Atlas

Food entrepreneurship's role in the economy

FoodSave - helping small and medium-sized food businesses prevent food waste and to divert surplus food to good purposes

Food waste hierarchy

Food waste infographic 

Forked!

GLA report on child hunger and food poverty 

Good food for London - London Food Link

Growing Communities Patchwork Farm map 

Hackney Food Charter 

Healthier Catering Commitment

Household Food and Drink Waste Resource Listing (from WRAP)

Infographic on food waste

Is eating local good for the climate? Thinking beyond food miles

Landshare 

London National Park City campaign

Making Local Food Work

Map of London’s breweries

Map of London food hygiene ratings 

Meat Atlas

Modern Farmer

Scaling Up the Community Food Sector

The School Food Plan

SOAS Food Studies Centre

Sustainable seafood guide 

Sustain’s Food Legacy Pledge

Sustain's Jellied Eel magazine 

UK Food Statistics Pocketbook 2014

Local Organisations

Edible Forest Garden

Edible Landscapes London

FARM:shop

Feedback

Growing Communities

Hackney Allotment Society

Hackney City Farm

Hackney Harvest

Hackney Hop Growers

Hackney Permaculture

Hackney Wick Food Assembly

Made In Hackney

North London Master Gardeners

Organic Lea

OrganicWick

The People's Kitchen

St Mary's Secret Garden

Other Organisations

Abundance Network

Capital Growth - London's food growing network

Casserole Club

Children's Food Trust

Community Food Growers Network

Eat Seasonably 

eat the seasons

Food Ethics Council

Food for Life Partnership

Food Systems Academy

Forage London

London Orchard Project

London Permaculturalists Ning

London Permaculture Network

Marine Stewardship Council

Plan Zheroes

Real Bread Campaign

School Food Plan network

Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming 

Sustainable Food Cities 

Sustainable Restaurant Association

Think.Eat.Save

This is Rubbish 

Tristram Stuart on food waste

Urban Orchard Project