Sharing good practice and learning through co-production with local food partnerships

Supporting the future sustainability and national impact of food partnerships
Male community members working to produce and share fresh vegetables

Overview 

This Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS) Synergy-funded project aimed to support knowledge-sharing between food partnerships, providing the opportunity for food partnerships and academics to discuss and address challenges faced in the current political and economic environment.
Food partnerships are cross-sector partnerships connecting public agencies, businesses, researchers, and community organisations, working together to identify local priorities and actions to promote lasting change to food systems. Sustainable Food Places is a network that brings together food partnerships from across the UK to drive innovation and share best practice, supporting the transition to a healthier, fairer, and more sustainable food system.

People involved 

This project involved four food partnerships in Birmingham, Sheffield, Rotherham, and Bristol as well as Sustainable Food Places, researchers from the University of Sheffield (H3), the University of Cambridge (Mandala), and the University of York (FixOurFood).  
The food partnerships were at different stages of their development, with Bristol Food Network having already achieved a gold award, ShefFood having recently been awarded silver, Birmingham bronze, and Rotherham Food Network aiming for a bronze award (Sustainable Food Places recognises and celebrates the successes of food partnerships through bronze, silver, and gold awards).

Key project activities

Workshops with food partnerships
The food partnerships worked alongside academic researchers at three reflective workshops to share learning, focusing on key priorities such as finance and governance, diversity and inclusion, and the role of food partnerships in the wider national food system. The food partnerships all contributed to the research agenda, and suggested themes for workshop discussions.
Co-creating good practice guidance
Following workshop discussions, the group have co-created up-to-date resources, including 'good practice' guidance based on a review of Sustainable Food Place's database of >1000 actions taken by local food partnerships across the UK, aiming to add value rather than duplicate existing work. The team focused on an analysis of 50 actions relating to equality, diversity and inclusion in the database and generated actionable tips for food partnerships and Sustainable Food Places in this area. 

Co-production principles and insights from project collaborators

Reflection and reflexivity 

The project has provided support for food partnerships with limited capacity and resources to hold structured reflections on important issues, such as financial constraints and governance structures, and how they relate to national policy, with support from academics.  
"I think for the three of us it's the space to reflect on the work we're doing… it is incredibly valuable because you don't put that time into your day when you're trying to deal with more immediate issues." (Food Partnership Co-ordinator) 

Knowledge 

The project has brought together people with a diverse range of expertise and experience, as well as the opportunity to share practical and theoretical types of knowledge.
"When you’re a practitioner, you don't have time to relate to theory, and so having that space to have those conversations with people who are paid to think about that is really useful..." (Food Partnership Co-ordinator) 
"It was certainly a useful opportunity to get to learn from one another…" (Project collaborator) 
The wider impact of the project has also been noted by a project collaborator from Sustainable Food Places: 
"The collaborative work has been useful to the SFP members in a very practical way – but also valuable to the SFP programme for evaluation, strategic planning and fund-raising purposes." (Project Collaborator)
 

Find out more about this project

Related references

H3 (2024), Learning from local food partnerships. H3 policy and practice brief one. Retrieved 11 June 2025. https://h3.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/H3-POLICY-AND-PRACTICE-BRIEF-V3a.pdf
Jackson, P., Yap, C., Parsons, K., Treuherz, S. and Roberts, G. (2024), Values-based food systems: the role of local food partnerships in England. Agriculture and Human Values, 42: 1379-1393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-024-10670-4 
Middleton, L. (2024), Sheffield leading the way in local food partnerships. ShefFood. Retrieved 2 May 2025. https://sheffood.org.uk/blog/sheffield-leading-the-way/ 
Sustainable Food Places (2024), Diversity, equity and inclusion across the Sustainable Food Places Network: an evidence review. Retrieved 2 May 2025 https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/blogs/mar24-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-across-the-SFP-network-an-evidence-review/
Sustainable Food Places (2024), Engaging researchers with Callum Etches. Retrieved 11 June 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVnfuB3mi18