In a meeting this week, I put forward the proposal that if we're serious about food resilience in the UK, all agricultural universities should host a Seed Bank (or Seed Multiplier Unit) with an associated mandate to grow, maintain and multiply seed (after all, agriculture is more than just meat, dairy and arable grains.) The logic is this: We know that the UK is not food secure or resilient - this goes for seed even more so than it does for food (just no one 'sees' seed) Most

Over the past year, working with schools through Schools Food Web , Eat Club  and Food System Live sessions , one thing has become clear: when children are given the space to explore food properly, they don’t just change what they eat — they change how they think  about food. Rather than focusing narrowly on “healthy choices”, this work supports pupils to understand food as a system  — shaped by farming, processing, marketing, time, access and culture. This approach reflects

Food is ‘macro’: people see and relate to food, but seed is ‘micro’ and has become invisible. But so are atoms. Both are absolutely elemental to our existence. So often at SGFP, we're having conversations about issues that are at the heart of our local or national food struggles. All issues are connected: "wicked problems", as they're often called... so we have to think in systems. I learned this through years of food systems research, but food resilience really hit home as a

Earlier today I attended a powerful Food for Thought  webinar hosted by the Food Standards Agency, featuring new research from Trussell  (Report Link) that explored a question many of us working in food and community spaces quietly wrestle with: Why are so many people going without food and other essentials, but not accessing charitable food support? The findings were sobering, this wasn't a hopeful webinar. Across the UK, an estimated 4.5 million households are food insecure

Slide deck available below. Overview of the AGM What the Partnership Is Member of the national Sustainable Food Places  network Works across education, community, farming, policy and resilience Mission to relocalise, regenerate, reconnect and build county-wide resilience Key Achievements This Year £100,000+  secured in project grants 130 Good Food Trail venues 2,000 children  engaged via smoothie bike 23 schools  in the Schools Food Web National influence via parliamentary da

Schools Food Web pupils taste testing - "Can you taste the difference" pilot. There’s a growing awareness that what we eat shapes our health — yet the conversation often begins too late, when food is already seen as Food as Medicine . Don’t get me wrong: Food as Medicine is a powerful movement, but I believe we need to go beyond that. Food shouldn’t just help us heal; it should help us stay healthy in the first place . For that, we must look closely at what kind of food we’re

Earlier this month, at the Marches Real Food & Farming Convergence (MRFFC), Steve Brett from 3rd Space caught up with Daphne to explore the remarkable role food can play in the transition we so urgently need. Their conversation — now captured in Steve’s article (click on link for full article) for 3rd Space, “ Food — The Low-Hanging Fruit of Transition (and how understanding complexity is a superpower) ”  — highlights how reconnecting with food systems is one of the most acc

As the AFN Network+ Roadmap sets out, Phase 1 (2025–2030) is a critical window for “building foundations” — winning hearts and minds, co-designing practical solutions, and creating the conditions for a fair, healthy and sustainable food system. At Shropshire Good Food Partnership, we’re already laying these foundations locally, bringing together farmers, schools, councils, and communities to turn the roadmap’s national ambition into place-based action. Winning Hearts and Min

Yesterday I attended a Parliamentary Roundtable hosted by Roz Savage MP that brought together the partners of Soil Ed – an initiative to embed food, farming, and sustainability  into the National Curriculum. What started at a petition to government followed by a White Paper on its responsibility to young people is becoming a movement – one focused on giving kids the knowledge and skills to face a complex and uncertain future.   The UK is the 6 th  largest OECD economy by GD

When we hear the word growth , it’s easy to think of “more” — more production, more profit, more consumption. But at Shropshire Good Food...

The new EAT Lancet Report has been released and presents new research on eating within planetary boundaries. The Executive Summary of...

Guest Feature: Emma Harber - Shropshire Organics The business world has undergone significant shifts recently, and at Shropshire...

Food resilience isn’t something that most people think about, but here at the Shropshire Good Food Partnership it’s what we work towards...

If you’re based in Telford, we’d love to hear your ideas about how to make it easier to eat healthy food in your neighbourhood.   People...

Reflections on the new National Food Strategy     After digesting the new food strategy  and considering the reflections and reviews of...

Building a Resilient, Regenerative Food Future for the Marches In May 2025, the Marches Real Food & Farming Partnership (MRFFN) unveiled...

Emma Cantillion - Schools Food Web Lead Emma's Post It Note On 10th June, I had the privilege of attending “Reframing Food Education:...

Emma Cantillion - Schools Food Web Lead Earlier this month I was lucky enough to attend the Legumes Initiative Workshop at Reading...

Street Allotment Project running a school gardening club. Half term week is National Children’s Gardening Week (24 May – 1 June 2025) it...

22 May 2025 The national launch event for Good Food Local brought together local authorities, food partnerships, academics, and advocates...