Brighton & Hove Food Strategy 2025-2030

The strategy is the first one since Covid and other shocks to the food system (including the war in Ukraine, and Cost-of-Living Crisis) which have driven up food prices by 25% (National Preparedness Commission 2025). In 2021 Brighton & Hove achieved the first in the UK Gold Award for being a Sustainable Food Place; in part due to the robust community responses to improving equal food access - something that Very Local Food Hubs is passionately involved in.

Being a sustainable food place means supporting a system that is good for our health, our planet and our local economy.

We align ourselves with these values and below you can find how we are contributing to each of the eight aims of the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership Food Strategy.

Aim One: Champion healthy and sustainable food

• VLFH are all about healthy & sustainable food; whether it’s encouraging people to attend a food growing workshop, inspiring people to grow at home or helping people access seasonal and organic produce through our veg box scheme the food we LOVE is seasonal, sustainable and local.

Aim Two: Take a preventative ‘upstream’ approach to food poverty and ensure equal access to healthy food

• Our affordable veg box scheme has no criteria to sign up to and is self-referral, this is important for those that are struggling as a referral system can be a barrier and often by the time people reach out to food banks or other food support they have already been experiencing the impacts of food insecurity (hunger, sluggishness, not paying attention in school, skipping meals, the impact on mental health etc). By providing a community-led scheme we hope to catch people before they slip through the net and hopefully prevent them from having to use a food bank.

• The scheme is for everyone - not just for those experiencing financial hardship. Everyone gets the same veg box, no matter how much they can afford to pay for it. We believe everyone should have equal access to healthy food, and people shouldn’t be priced out of making healthy choices.

• All our events are open to everyone and offered on the same basis that they are free but we welcome donations to keep them happening

Aim Three: Nourish a vibrant, diverse and skilled community food sector

• Bringing people together through the power of food is our goal. We run community events that connect neighbours with each other, encouraging conversations about community, sharing and learning of skills and opportunities to step outside our comfort zones, all with food at the heart of what we do.

• We have a dedicated team of volunteers all contributing to a diverse and skilled community food sector. We started during Covid as a crisis-response and listened to the needs of our community and the overwhelming message was that people wanted the veg box scheme to continue.

Aim Four: Improve sustainability and security in urban, rural and marine food production and Aim Five: Encourage a vibrant and sustainable food economy

• We work closely with local farms and growing projects (both urban, rural and peri-urban) on a number of initiatives. We run regular community trips so that people can see where their food is grown and what’s possible in our local climate and soil conditions.

• We buy direct from a number of local farms providing them an important and regular source of income, as well as working closely with a local Greengrocer (Fruit Bowl), as we see less and less greengrocers as supermarkets increasingly homogenise the sector.

  Farms we buy direct from:

  Laines Organic Farm in Cuckfield - less than 20 miles away

  Rock Farm in Steyning - less than 20 miles away

  Highbarn Community Farm in Brighton - less than 10 miles away

  My Little Farm in Hassocks - less than 10 miles away

  Macs Farm in Ditchling - less than 10 miles away

  Pitfield Farm in Hassocks - less than 10 miles away

Aim Six: transform catering and food procurement

• All our events are catered for by local Community Chefs using as much local & seasonal produce as possible - by doing this we are showing that it IS possible to centre environmental values even on a tight budget. Sometimes environmental concerns are the first things to be cut but we want to see an end to unnecessary plastic packaging and cheap food which is no good for our health or our planet and is often thrown in the bin after community events.

• We are also showing how there is loads of food grown on our doorstep and that the work to procure it need not be seen as a barrier - we’ve found it brilliant being able to build relationships with farmers we know the first names of and who often bend over backwards to help us.

Aim Seven: become a ‘food use’ not a ‘food waste’ city

• Minimising food waste is important to us so we asked about it in our annual customer survey, from the responses we know that some items are still getting wasted (although very little!). The reasons why are mainly because there was too much produce in the veg box and something spoiled before it was used and less commonly, but an important one to consider, is that sometimes people don’t know what the less common vegetables are (like patty-pan squashes) or how to use them. Whilst some people give these vegetables away to others, some do end up wasting them which is why we make sure we give recipes and ideas for what the produce is as well as letting people know about apps like OLIO and local projects like the Real Junk Food Project who help save food from being wasted.

• We are also linked in with other community food projects across the city that we donate any surplus food to at the end of our packing sessions including Coldean Corner, BELTA, Real Junk Food Project.

Aim Eight: ensure healthy, sustainable and fair food is embedded in policy and planning, and has high-profile right across the city

• Within our constitution we embed the principles of ‘sustainable’, ‘healthy’ and ‘equality’ in the work we do to provide a community food project in Moulsecoomb & Bevendean and surrounding estates. We work predominantly in this area for a number of reasons:

  • the project is community-led by residents who live in these neighbourhoods who saw a need and reacted to it

  • these areas are amongst the most deprived neighbourhoods in the city

  • some of these postcodes are considered ‘food deserts’ in that there are limited choices for food retailers selling affordable fresh produce