Inspirational Organisations
https://www.growinglinks.org.uk
Sustainable Goals UK
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. The 17 Goals were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
UK data for the Sustainable Development Goals are collated and reported here.
Involve
Involve is the UK’s leading public participation charity. We develop, support and campaign for new ways to involve people in decisions that affect their lives.
My Society
We help people be active citizens
Established in 2003, mySociety is a not for profit group pioneering the use of online technologies to empower citizens to take their first steps towards greater civic participation.
We help people be active citizens with technology, research and data that individuals, journalists, and civil society can use, openly and for free.
https://www.mysociety.org/about/
Centre for Public Impact
We believe in the potential of government to bring about better outcomes for people. Yet, we have found that the systems, structures, and processes of government today are often not set up to respond to the complex challenges we face as a society.
That’s why we have an emerging vision to reimagine government so that it works for everyone.
We act as a learning partner for governments, public servants, and the diverse network of changemakers leading the charge to reimagine government. We work with them to hold space to collectively make sense of the complex challenges we face and drive meaningful change through experimentation and learning.
https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org
Your Priorities
Your Priorities is an open source online idea generation, deliberation & decision-making social networking platform connecting governments and citizens since 2008 in thousands of projects. Explore Your Priorities features and tutorials here: https://citizens.is/your-…
BBC Future Planets
In a complex, fast-paced world of soundbites, knee-jerk opinions and information overload, BBC Future provides something different: a home for slowing down, delving deep and shifting perspectives.
We look for answers to the issues facing the world in science. You’ll find stories here on almost every topic that matters. Psychology. Food. Climate change. Health. Social trends. Technology
https://www.bbc.com/future/future-planet/
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
We’re a charity committed to creating a circular economy, which is designed to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. It’s an economic system that delivers better outcomes for people, and the environment.
https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/about-us/what-we-do
World Economic Forum
The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests. The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. Moral and intellectual integrity is at the heart of everything it does.
https://www.weforum.org/about/world-economic-forum/
Brighton PAN
Brighton & Hove first adopted a Planning Advisory Note (PAN) in 2011 to encourage developers to include space for food growing in new developments. Since then, the City Plan Part One has been adopted (2016) and Part Two of the City Plan (Development Management and Site Allocations) is now being brought forward. This update to the PAN illustrates how the current and emerging local planning policy framework can be implemented and sets out good practice examples to demonstrate how food growing can be successfully integrated in most new developments across
https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2020-09/FINAL Food PAN 2020.pdf#page4
Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
An inclusive democracy means that all citizens should feel represented and heard, and with more than 3.5 billion people under the age of 30 living in the world today, young people play a crucial role in ensuring the political structures work for everyone.
Youth political participation
Sustainable Places
Our Network brings together pioneering food partnerships from towns, cities, boroughs, districts and counties across the UK that are driving innovation and best practice on all aspects of healthy and sustainable food.
Sustainable Food Places is a partnership programme led by the Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. It is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund.
https://www.sustainablefoodplaces.org/about/
Practical Action
We put ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.
Family Action
Family Action has launched Food On Our Doorstep (FOOD) clubs to provide good-quality food at a low cost, while also reducing food waste. It costs just £1 a year for a family to become a member. Once you’ve joined, you can purchase a bag of tasty food items every week worth approx. £10-£15 for just £3.50! To become a member you must live or work within approximately 15 minutes of a club.
https://www.family-action.org.uk/what-we-do/children-families/food-club/
Big Barn
BigBarn is the UK’s no.1 local food website.
We help people to find and buy, good, safe, accountable food from local sources and in the process encourage more food production to help build healthier, inclusive, sustainable food communities.
https://www.bigbarn.co.uk/about/
The Soil Association
The Soil Association is the charity working with everyone to transform the way we eat, farm and care for our natural world.
https://www.soilassociation.org
Campaign to Protect Rural England – The Countryside Charity
We believe in countryside and green spaces that are accessible to all, rich in nature and playing a crucial role in responding to the climate emergency.
Home
Open Food Network
Networked e-commerce for fairer food systems
Open source software designed for food producers and community food hubs.
Every food enterprise is different. Whatever your model, we’re here to support
More than just software, we are a thriving community
https://openfoodnetwork.org.uk
Food Assembly
At the Food Assembly, products travel on average 60 kilometers from farm to fork.
Each region offers a unique choice of local produce.
https://laruchequiditoui.fr/en
Community Supported Agriculture
Our mission is to help create a CSA in every neighbourhood of the UK.
That’s an ambitious mission, and we’ve got a long way to go.
- Are you are interested in improving the world by starting your own CSA?
- Perhaps you’ve already started a project and want to improve it.
- You could be looking for a CSA you can join in your area.
- You may want to support our movement to make a more secure and efficient food system.
https://communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk
Your Local Pantry
Your Local Pantries are improving the everyday lives of over 90,000 people in over 80 neighbourhoods across the UK. Pantries soften the blow of high living costs and create the conditions for communities to grow and thrive, by bringing people together around food. Pantries are strengthening communities, fostering friendships, loosening the grip of poverty and contributing to healthier, happier lives. Pantries operate as membership food clubs and neighbourhood hubs, often serving as springboards to other community initiatives, opportunities and ideas. The Your Local Pantry model is built upon partnerships that help the franchise thrive throughout the UK. SKylight (Part of Stockport Homes Group) first developed the Your Local Pantry model and now in 2022, the franchise is run via a partnership between SKylight and Church Action on Poverty.
https://www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk
UK Harvest
We are on a mission to eliminate hunger and reduce food waste through the redistribution of quality surplus food and education.
Give Food
Find a food bank near you, see what they need and how you can help by donating, volunteering or writing to your MP.
https://www.givefood.org.uk/needs/
Low Impact
Lowimpact.org is a huge resource bank for living sustainably and re-skilling for career change, supported by a network of like-minded people, businesses & organisations. Browse the categories below for 230+ topics with frequently updated info, books, magazines, news, videos, courses, products, services & specialists to answer your queries.
Social Farms & Gardens
Social Farms & Gardens is a UK wide charity supporting communities to farm, garden and grow together.
Our vision and mission
Our vision – people and communities reaching their full potential through nature-based activities as a part of everyday life. Our mission – to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and the environment through nature-based activities.
https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/your-area
We’re a small, experienced and ambitious team with a strongly collaborative approach.
Shared Assets
However big or small your project is, we’re here to work with you to reimagine your land or the land around you.
https://www.sharedassets.org.uk
Land workers Alliance
We are a democratic member-led union, run by producers for producers. All our policies, representation and training comes from farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers who have direct experiences of the issues we work on.
https://landworkersalliance.org.uk
War on Want
We believe a better world is possible
War on Want works in the UK and with partners around the world to fight poverty and defend human rights, as part of the movement for global justice.
Agriculture Rural Action
we work with rural people, and help organise events like the rural sustainability gathering in Karditsa 2017 and the European Rural Parliament, most recently in November 2019 in Asturias. It’s important to give people a change to dialogue with each other – to share ideas and practices, concerns and opportunities – and this we try to foster in our debates and serie. These include on technology in 2018 and our rural dialogue of 2019. This rural debate series was especially fruitful, with a rich set of contributions from many people and places. We do try to meld the practical community orientated work and the debates we facilitate with policy proposals: we want what we learn from the communities we work with to feed into our submissions on long term visions and strategies for Rural Europe.
Home
IPES
IPES-Food is an independent panel of experts shaping debates on how to transition to sustainable food systems around the world.
Food Cycle
We are FoodCycle, and our vision is to make food poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community.
We connect communities, reducing loneliness and food poverty – working with thousands of volunteers and surplus food to help everyone who needs us. By creating welcoming spaces for people from all walks of life to meet, eat and have conversations, and by offering a weekly telephone Check-in and Chat, we are supporting people’s health and mental wellbeing.
By cooking with surplus ingredients, we promote healthy, sustainable attitudes towards food and its impact on the environment, and help people to learn more about healthy food.
We aim to inspire greater change by sharing the impact of our community dining spaces and the voices of our guests to encourage more people to join and support FoodCycle, so we can help more people and more communities.
https://foodcycle.org.uk/find-a-meal/
Feedback
Founded in 2013, Feedback has generated outsized impact over our short history. Here are six ways we’ve changed the game over the past few years:
1. Secured major victories on supermarket practice on food waste
After many years of research, campaigning and engagement with industry, including our Supermarket Food Waste Scorecard, our work has led to the former CEO of Tesco calling for mandatory food waste reporting to tackle climate change, stating “It’s time to get serious about food waste in fight against global heating.” Feedback’s role has been to catalyse public awareness and foster demand for action on food waste; our work has been credited by our allies as integral to raising the ambitions of UK businesses on food waste.
We have continued to engage with and apply pressure on retailers, including developing a meat scorecard and an aquaculture scorecard.
2. Leading the charge on the urgent need to divest from Big Livestock
Industrial meat and dairy, or ‘Big Livestock’, pose a significant threat to our environment, our health and our future. And just like the fossil fuel industry, these big companies are created and supported by global finance. The steaks are high. It’s time we called a halt to Big Livestock.
As part of our Big Livestock campaign, we launched two impactful reports: It’s Big Livestock Versus the Planet and Butchering the Planet. We also conducted a comprehensive study of private sector funding and publicly exposed these funding sources. We have worked with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Mongabay to expose the public sector finance behind industrial meat and dairy.
3. Making waves in the aquaculture world
Our Fishy Business campaign investigates the natural resources – in particular wild caught fish – which underpin the Scottish farmed salmon industry and the implications for the industry’s sustainability. We have published three in-depth research reports exploring the role of fed aquaculture in a sustainable food system. Through this work, we have worked with Michelin-starred chef Merlin Labron-Johnson and have collaborated with organisations such as Compassion in World Farming and Slow Fish.
4. Putting food on the climate agenda
We are a UNFCCC observer organisation and we will attend COP26 to steer debate towards reduced meat production and consumption and food waste reduction. We are also members of the Climate Coalition and the global coalition 50by40, which is a global alliance of organisations seeking to reduce meat and dairy by 50% by 2040. For our work on food and climate, we won the Keeling Curve Prize in 2020.
5. Influenced the debate on post-Brexit agriculture
We have taken part in key consultation processes, including for the Health and Harmony Strategy and the Resources and Waste Strategy. We also commented on the Agriculture Bill and responded to consultations on Better Regulation and the Competition and Markets Authority, as well as consulted on Labour’s agricultural policy. Our response to the UK government policy paper ‘Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit’ was publicly described by one of our civil society partners as ‘phenomenal research, clear thinking and compelling arguments’. In addition, many of our suggestions were reflected in the government’s approach to post-Brexit agricultural policy, including a provision in the Agriculture Bill to ask farmers to measure food waste on their farm, a core policy ask for Feedback.
https://feedbackglobal.org/about-us/our-impact/
World Resource Institute
Our mission and values define WRI as an institution. Our values are not rules, but shared ideals and understanding that bind us together. Along with our mission and our commitment to excellence in everything we do, they articulate who we are and what we believe, influence our goals, guide our actions, and help us to explain our aspirations to others.
WRI’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.
Fareshare
FareShare is the UK’s national network of charitable food redistributors, made up of 18 independent organisations. Together, we take good quality surplus food from right across the food industry and get it to nearly 9,500 frontline charities and community groups.
What we do
The food we redistribute is nutritious and good to eat. It reaches charities across the UK, including school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, homeless shelters, and community cafes. Every week we provide enough food to create almost a million meals for vulnerable people.
No Food Waste
No Food Waste is an organisation which aims to redistribute excess food from weddings, parties, events to those who are hungry.
The idea took root in Coimbatore, where we started with 2 Shopper Bags and a volunteer to collect the surplus food and deliver to the homeless through Public Transportation System from October 16th, 2014. We took an oath on that day to stop food waste and satisfy the hunger of many, in a quest to make the “World Hunger Free.”
https://www.nofoodwaste.org/about
WRAP
The Love Food Hate Waste team has developed world-leading programmes for preventing food from being wasted. We unite, motivate, and inspire citizens to keep food out of the bin and on their plates.
Underpinned by robust research, we work with strategic partners to build and deliver insightful campaigns, taking our message directly to citizens in practical, achievable ways. We believe in challenging attitudes, behaviours and mindsets to ensure citizens know the value of food: buying what they need, eating what they buy, and storing their food correctly.
We are the people who love food, and do all we can to stop it going to waste.
https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/citizen-behaviour-change/love-food-hate-waste
The Academy of Urbanism
The Academy of Urbanism is a politically independent, not-for-profit organisation that brings together both the current and next generation of urban leaders, thinkers and practitioners.
We embrace everyone involved in the design, development and management of great places. Our members include individuals and organisations involved in city management and policy making, academic research and teaching, town planning and urban design, community leadership and urban change-making, arts and cultural development, infrastructure and engineering, property law and management, politics and media.
What we do
We work with places to identify and reinforce their strengths, and help them recognise and overcome obstacles to greater success.
Through our events, activities and programmes we draw out and disseminate examples and lessons of good urbanism. We use the evidence we gather to promote better understanding of how the development and management of the urban realm can provide a better quality of living for all.
Power to Change
At Power to Change, we know community business strengthens local communities. We use our experience to bring partners together to fund, grow and back community business to make places thrive. We are curious and rigorous; we do, test and learn. And we are here to support community business, whatever the challenge.
We know community business works to create thriving places when local people take ownership over spaces that matter and deliver services that communities need. Our 2021-26 strategy sets out how, using strategic funding, trusted partnerships, rigorous research, policy insight, and a strong network of remarkable community businesses we will back the sector, creating the ideas, evidence, and exemplars that make the case for others to back them too. Ultimately, we will amplify the efforts of community businesses and put them at the heart of a fair economy.
https://www.powertochange.org.uk
Cooperation Town
Cooperation Town is a movement of community food co-ops, self organising on streets and estates across the country. There are currently 21 co-ops in our network.
Cooperation Town co-ops are small neighbourhood buying groups, providing their members with free and affordable groceries, sourced in bulk and distributed at a very low price.
Cooperation Town food co-ops are owned by their members and run according to local needs. Members decide collectively on how to organise and are responsible for the day to day running of the co-op.
https://cooperation.town/about/
National Food Service
Our vision is a National Food Service as a public good, one that provides a sustainable and resilient and affordable food system where good food is available to everyone, distributed equitably and eaten with company.
https://nationalfoodservice.uk/vision-1
Local Inspiration
Sustainable Food Cornwall
The food system is a complex web of activities involving the production, processing, transport and consumption. Issues concerning the food system include the governance and economics of food production, its sustainability, the degree to which we waste food, how food production affects the natural environment and the impact of food on individual and population health.
We, a small, local group of people, funded by The Hive, Cornwall and Sustainable Food Places, are working together to gather views on how to improve our food systems in Cornwall. How we can grow good quality, affordable, healthy, more diverse, local produce that decreases food miles and improves our natural systems like soil, water and habitat. Our aim is to establish sustainable food partnerships and pathways throughout Cornwall and currently we are consulting widely to identify people’s views, ideas and interests while adopting the Sustainable Food Places framework.
https://sustainablefoodcornwall.org.uk/about-us/about-sustainable-food-cornwall/
Future Farmers
Future Farmers in the Spotlight is an initiative that aims to inspire and encourage the next generation of sustainable farmers. We like to show and share inspiring stories about young farmers who have – despite the many difficulties – managed to set up farming initiatives which are innovative, viable and sustainable!
So far we filmed 16 inspiring farming initiatives in The Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Greece, France and Spain.
Movers and Shakers
https://www.jonalexander.net/the-idea
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/earth-sciences/people/academic/prof-bill-mcguire#2018
Inspirational Links
The Felix Project – London
The Felix Project collects fresh, nutritious food that cannot be sold. We deliver this surplus food to charities and schools so they can provide healthy meals and help the most vulnerable in our society.
Feast – London
Our mission is to provide regular access to nutritious meals, nutrition education and skills, for people suffering from food poverty. These meals are made from surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away.
https://www.feastwithus.org.uk/our-mission
Lambeth Larder – London
Are you struggling to pay for food? Below are voucher schemes, community-run food outlets that will help you save money on food.
https://www.lambethlarder.org/low-cost-food
The Community Farm – Bristol
The Community Farm is a not-for-proft, organic farm that grows, sources and delivers nourishing food through our award-winning veg box scheme.
We aim to grow community as much as we grow food. Every year we welcome over 1,000 people for wellbeing courses, social events and volunteering sessions on our beautiful land overlooking Chew Valley Lake, just south of Bristol.
https://www.thecommunityfarm.co.uk
Somerset Community Food
Somerset Community Food is a grass-roots charity which supports a network of community food projects. It aims to re-connect people with the social, health and environmental benefits of growing, buying, preparing and eating local food.
https://somersetcommunityfood.org.uk
Sturts Community Trust
Sturts Community Trust is an exciting venture bringing together a range of social initiatives built around a vision of promoting sustainability. We are a registered charity and also a registered housing association. Our care services are regulated by the Care Quality Commission.
https://www.sturtscommunitytrust.org.uk
The Nature Friendly Farming Network
- The Nature Friendly Farming Network is led by farmers across the UK with a passion for sustainable farming and nature
- We seek to unite farmers across the UK who have a sustainable outlook
- We seek to secure positive changes in policy, including how farming is supported by the public
- Together we can achieve more and learn from each other
Northern Roots
Northern Roots is creating the UK’s largest urban farm and eco-park on 160 acres of stunning green space in the heart of Oldham, Greater Manchester. A unique new community asset and visitor destination.
Vision: Harnessing urban green space to benefit people, planet and place.
Mission: Transforming 160 acres of green space into a destination for learning, leisure and growing to benefit the environment, and improve health, wellbeing and livelihoods.
From market gardening to mountain biking, forest schools to woodland weddings, get involved, come on the journey with us, and help bring the vision to life.
Granville Community Kitchen
We work towards a world in which everyone has easy access to nutritious, sustainable, culturally appropriate food. A world in which the GCK values of dignity, equity, justice and care inform every action. A world in which communities are interconnected and interdependent: working together, growing stronger, producing new possibilities and creating things which we couldn’t create alone. A world in which all communities thrive and are resilient from future shocks. A world where our work is meaningful, our work-lives are balanced, and we always have time for joy, play, learning and celebration
https://granvillecommunitykitchen.org.uk/about/our-vision-and-values/
Growing Links Academy 