Consultancy & Workshop Delivery

Consultancy

We offer a consultancy service that gives you access to our specialist knowledge, food systems approach and extensive local networks. We can share our own learning with those pursuing similar aims, conduct in-depth studies or consultations addressing specific questions or topics, and support food policy development and design.

Contact us to discuss how we can support you.

FixOurFood & The Local Food Action Plan

The Local Food Action Plan was developed by ShefFood, over 100 partners across the city, and the FixOurFood research programme. The latter is led by the University of York and funded by the Transforming UK Food Systems Strategic Priorities Fund. 

We convened and facilitated twelve public workshops to co-produce the content of the plan, synthesised the contributions of workshop participants, and collaborated on delivery and launch of the final report. 

The outcome recognises and celebrates Sheffield’s collective progress towards a fairer, more sustainable, and more resilient food system, and includes commitments to deliver more than 70 actions by 2030 to continue changing the city’s food system for the better. 

Institute for Sustainable Food & Sharing good practice to support local food partnership sustainability and national impact

ShefFood worked with the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield to examine the potential for local food partnerships to achieve transformative food system change.

We planned and delivered a series of workshops that brought together four local food partnerships and other key partners, including the Sustainable Food Places network and the Centre for Food Policy. The themes for these workshops included governance, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and disaster preparedness.

We subsequently produced a short evidence brief for Sustainable Food Places further considering the issues raised relating to EDI, and co-authored a journal article led by The University of Sheffield focusing on value-based food systems.

Sheffield City Council & Collective food sourcing

ShefFood supported Sheffield City Council to efficiently allocate grant funding for sustainable food provision from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA).

We managed a process of individual and collective consultation involving around 20 community food providers across the city, identifying common barriers and needs. This highlighted a recent decline in the availability of surplus food and a need for food organisations to work towards increasing the capacity of their service users, with the aim of reducing the need for emergency food provision.

The outcome was a recommendation to invest in a collective food sourcing strategy facilitated through S6 Food Bank. This gave S6 the means to purchase and deliver food at scale on behalf of other food banks and food initiatives in the city, reducing their costs and time spent sourcing food, while complementing existing food provision infrastructure. The project has so far successfully supported 16 independent community food providers, and delivered 29 tonnes of food across the city.

A further recommendation for investment in Food Works has allowed them to up-scale their surplus food sourcing and develop a ‘pop-up’ pantry model. Roll-out of Food Works pantries in multiple locations across the city will increase access to affordable, nutritious food for people in our most disadvantaged communities.

Sheffield City Council & Mapping the Geographies of Food Provision in Sheffield

The Food Ladders report was commissioned by Sheffield City Council with the aim of mapping emergency food provision across the city, highlighting gaps in provision, and identifying barriers and challenges experienced by provisioning services.

Lyds Leather and Selina Treuherz, in partnership with ShefFood, carried out a mapping and consultation exercise, conducting in person interviews with 20 food banks encompassing a wide geographic spread. Synthesis of these interviews provided important insight into needs for and challenges in providing food-related support across the city, and directly resulted in the establishment of the Food Ladders network, which continues to support food services across Sheffield. In addition, it provided vital evidence for the food access plan, as part of Sheffield City Council’s cost of living crisis response in July 2022