Summary of the Challenge
Food security. Skills and productivity. Supply chain resilience. Decarbonisation. Environmental sustainability. Diet-related ill health. These are a handful of the challenges that the food system in South Yorkshire faces. Achieving positive change in an area as complex as the food system requires stakeholders and organisations to work together, to tackle the challenges collectively.
There are many fantastic food initiatives across our region such as ShefFood, FoodWorks, and our partner Regather to name a few. There are also existing food networks but none that cut across the breadth of the food system and none that represent all of its actors. This fragmentation hinders collaboration, resource sharing, and the overall efficiency of the food system.
There is a need for a unified network for considering responses to shared issues and building relationships between different food system actors such as large-scale producers, small businesses, and community groups.
Our Response
This project aims to conduct a feasibility study to explore how a South Yorkshire Food Network could address these challenges and support progress in the following areas:
- Unite Stakeholders: Bring together stakeholders from across the food system in South Yorkshire to build a strong, collective voice and enable knowledge sharing. This will include producers, processors, retailers, and community organizations, to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing.
- Develop Sustainable Models: Co-develop solutions to sustainability challenges such as reducing food waste, improving energy efficiency, and promoting local food production.
- Enhance Public Health: Improve access to healthy, affordable food and address diet-related health issues.
- Drive Economic Growth & Innovation: Stimulate economic growth by supporting local businesses to innovate, grow and build resilience whilst also providing good, local jobs.
This project will be a collaboration between the Advanced Food Innovation Centre (AFIC) at Sheffield Hallam University and the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield. Their combined strengths in innovative food technologies and sustainable practices make them ideal leaders for this feasibility study. They will provide the robust evidence base which will be essential in shaping a unified South Yorkshire food network.
