Originally coming together in 2020 during the pandemic, Haringey Food Network had the backing of Haringey Council and many other organisations. Transitioning to a constituted organisation early in 2022, with a slight change of name, Haringey Community Food Network (HCFN) and is expanding its network to include growing groups, schools, local food businesses and any other interested organisation. 

Through its network, they take a collaborative approach to fighting food injustice within the community looking at a whole food system approach to tackling food injustice. They believe that everyone in Haringey should have easy access to affordable, healthy, equitable and culturally appropriate food. They are also aware of the need to find more sustainable solutions and are working with other local and nationwide organisations to learn what options are viable.

As part of this they linked up with the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCN) who carried out a series of community led conversations titled “Let’s Talk about Food” to explore the challenges and opportunities facing food in the UK.

These community-led conversations enabled the FFCN to scale up the work they do, by bringing more people into the conversation.

They also had an impact at a local level too helping groups such as HCFN forge new relationships in communities, involving more people in the debate and empowering people to take more of a role in shaping the future of food and the future of their communities. This has led to a wider food movement – you can read the FDCN’s full report HERE

This work with the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission led to the Haringey Food Summit taking place in 2024, which brought together community members, organisations and advocates to address food insecurity and promote sustainable food systems.

Convened by the network and moderated by Community Organiser Moussa Amine Sylla, the event featured prominent speakers as well as facilitated discussions empowering communities to find actionable solutions.

Desired Outcomes

1. Facilitate discussions on key topics: sustainable food systems, food justice, health and nutrition, and community collaboration.
2. Inspire actionable ideas through expert insights and roundtable discussions.
3. Strengthen partnerships among local stakeholders to address food-related challenges.
4. Empower attendees to drive meaningful changes in food accessibility, sustainability, and policy.

Highlights and Policy Recommendations

Sustainable Food Systems

1. Enhance Access to Locally Grown Food:
   • Develop programs to connect communities with locally grown organic produce through direct markets.
2. Strengthen Food Regulations:
   • Enforce policies supporting sustainable farming practices, including mandatory healthy soil standards and composting initiatives (e.g., community compost bins on every street).
3. Promote Education and Engagement:
   • Work intergenerationally to engage youth in sustainable food practices, such as horticultural training and growing projects.
4. Support Dietary Shifts:
   • Promote awareness campaigns to encourage reducing processed food consumption and eating more plant-based and organic diets.

Food Justice and Policy change

1. Reduce Food Waste and Redistribute Resources:
   • Implement policies to collect surplus food from supermarkets and distribute it centrally to food banks and vulnerable groups.
2. Support Community Food Systems:
   • Enable land liberation for community gardens, shared growing spaces, and guerrilla gardening in unused areas.
   • Mandate the inclusion of community-grown food aisles in supermarkets.
3. Incentivise Local Food Production:
   • Introduce tax breaks or subsidies for grassroots food initiatives and organic farming.
   • Enforce progressive taxation for large supermarkets to fund community food projects.
4. Empower Through Education:
   • Make horticultural training, farm visits, and gardening lessons accessible, with a focus on hands-on learning for children and adults.

Health and Nutrition

1. Increase Access to Nutritious Food in Public Institutions:
   • Mandate that schools, hospitals, and other public facilities serve culturally diverse, nutritious meals.
2. Expand Community Spaces for Food Access:
   • Repurpose underutilised public spaces into community kitchens, gardens, and training centres.
   • Provide accessible information on how to access and use these spaces.
3. Improve Nutrition Education:
   • Introduce mandatory nutrition education, starting as early as six years old, focusing on healthy eating and the relationship between food and health.
4. Foster Mental Health and Food Connections:
   • Create public forums to discuss the mental health impacts of diets and the importance of nutrition for well-being.

Collaboration and community support

1. Strengthen Collaboration:
   • Create centralised platforms for community organisations to connect and share resources.
   • Organise forums for small and large organisations to collaborate on food-related initiatives.
2. Simplify Bureaucratic Barriers:
   • Streamline application and reporting processes for grassroots funding and support.
3. Empower Grassroots Initiatives:
   • Conduct resource mapping to leverage time, skills, and finances from local communities.
4. Promote Collective Decision-Making:
   • Adopt sociocracy or similar decision-making frameworks to ensure inclusive participation.

Next Steps and Key Recommendations

1. Develop governance systems that promote collaboration among organisations and community groups.
2. Conduct resource mapping to leverage community efforts and secure local authority support.
3. Integrate food security initiatives into public health systems.

To support their ongoing work they are one of the partners of Humanity Project set up to create a new kind of people-led politics that gives us control of what matters to us and where we live.

They will be running a “Popular Assembly” aimed at bringing more people into the conversation and using this process to change how decisions are made at the local level and fed further up the chain.

To find out more about HCFN visit their website HERE