Our food system is facing huge challenges — from climate change, overuse of pesticides and ecological breakdown to rising food insecurity and inequality.
Community groups like ours are already playing a vital role in building fairer, more resilient local food networks. Whether you’re running a food bank, growing on a community allotment, organising a food share, or supporting your local food hub, this workshop is a chance to connect, reflect, and take the next steps together.
We’ll explore the barriers and opportunities we’re facing locally, share practical ideas for increasing impact, and look at how we can work more strategically to build sustainable, healthy, and just food systems.
Working Better Together for Local Food Resilience
Local food growers, foodbanks, larders, community kitchens, and food charities can have a far greater impact when they connect and collaborate. By building strong local food networks, sharing resources, mapping surplus and need, and aligning growing efforts with community demand, we can reduce waste and improve access to fresh, nutritious food. Joint training, shared infrastructure, and coordinated volunteers help strengthen capacity, while collective action can influence local policies, secure land for growing, and encourage public institutions to buy local. Together, we can build stronger, more resilient local food systems rooted in sustainability, fairness, and food justice.
Some ideas that we may discuss:
- Gleaning groups that collect surplus from farms for local foodbanks.
- Community fridges stocked with produce from local gardens and allotments.
- Harvest swaps between home growers and community kitchens.
- Cooking workshops Cooking workshops that build community through shared food experiences — baking, making, and eating together while exploring different conversation topics. Workshops can focus on food staples or seasonal recipes that make use of local gluts and are especially welcoming to foodbank clients and community members looking to connect.
- Pesticide Residue and Soil Health: There is growing concern about the impact of pesticides and declining soil health on our food system, with evidence showing increased pest resistance, the disruption of vital microbial networks in topsoil, and reduced nutrient density in the food we eat — all of which pose risks to both human health and the wider environment.
- Local food charters – a roadmap for building a better food future — shaped by the community to guide values and priorities.
Craig Jolly from the Mushroom Food Network in Exmouth will be joining us to share the inspiring work he’s been doing to connect the community—delivering local food to those in need, running bread-making classes, hosting lunchtime meet-ups for home workers, and bringing people together through pizza-making sessions. He’ll be bringing some of his delicious homemade bread to share alongside a hearty soup made from organic local produce provided by the Eco Hub. The soup will be cooked on their Tawi Stove, which not only prepares the meal but also produces biochar in the process.
We will meet in our polytunnel (weather permitting), so please dress up warmly and wear waterproof footwear.
