1. Home
  2. Members

London Food Board

The Greater London Authority (GLA) and London Food Board represent a regional food partnership on behalf of the Mayor of London. The Food Board consists of experts spanning the breadth of the food system (from hospitality, markets and civil society to academia, public health nutrition and farming) who advise the Mayor and GLA Food Policy team on food matters affecting Londoners. 

Having reappointed the Board in 2017, members informed the development of the first London Food Strategy in over 10 years, which was launched in December 2018. 

The strategy uses the Sustainable Food Places approach as a framework and outlines the Mayor's priorities and plans to help all Londoners access healthy, sustainable and culturally appropriate food regardless of their background and circumstances. Its six chapters reflect the holistic and cross-cutting role food plays and the fact it can improve health and wellbeing, provide rewarding jobs and skills opportunities, build stronger communities and help protect the environment. 

The strategy's implementation plan sets out the specific actions, programmes and interventions the Mayor and partners are supporting to achieve its objectives. 

What we do

Historically, the Mayor and GLA's Food Programme has funded the delivery of policies and projects including but not limited to:

  • The Good Food for London and Beyond the Food Bank reports, which are published annually by Sustain and use a range of indicators to track the progress London's local authorities are making in improving access to healthy, sustainable food and tackle food insecurity respectively. 
  • The Healthier Catering Commitment, a voluntary accreditation scheme delivered in partnership with the Association of Environmental Health Managers (ALEHM), which encourages food outlets to make incremental, healthy changes to their ingredients, cooking processes and portion sizes.
  • The Mayor's Healthier Food Advertisement Policy, which restricts the marketing of food and drink products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) across Transport for London's advertising estate.
  • The Mayor's Fund for London's Kitchen Social programme, which supports holiday provision settings to deliver healthy food and social activities over the school holidays.
  • The Capital Growth programme, London's largest food growing network, which supports over 2,700 food growing spaces by providing access to discounted training, networking events, support with growing to sell and discounts on equipment. 

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the GLA and London Food Board has worked closely alongside local authorities and VCS organisations across London to respond to the pandemic's impact on food insecurity and ensure Londoners can continue to access food. Initially, this involved helping the London Food Alliance to establish at least one Community Food Hub in all 33 London boroughs, which enabled the onward distribution of increased quantities of food to frontline food charities and those in need. 

Following the successful establishment of this infrastructure, the London Food Board established a Food Aid Sub-Group to monitor levels of demand for food aid, food supplies and onward distribution arrangements. The Sub-Group also supported every London local authority to develop a Food Transition Plan to prepare for an increased demand for food aid, including in the event of a second wave.

This has all taken place alongside the Mayor calling on Government to tackle the underlying drivers of food insecurity.

Areas of expertise

Partnership & Collaboration

Food Vision & Action Plan

Awareness and Engagement

Tackling Food Poverty

Promoting Healthy Eating

Supporting Good Food Business

Contact

Liam Weeks
London Food Board
https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/business-and-economy/food
Liam.Weeks@london.gov.uk

Get involved

If you would like to join the London Food Board's sub-group, the Boroughs Food Group, please email Liam Weeks (liam.weeks@london.gov.uk). 

Anyone can join as an observer and the Group acts as a forum through which we connect the GLA and London Food Board with representatives from every borough (ranging from public health and economic fairness teams to environmental health officers and infant feeding leads) as well as national bodies including PHE, VCS organisations such as Sustain and the Food Foundation, frontline campaigners and local food partnerships.

We use meetings and newsletters to share best practice and disseminate as much intelligence about London's food system as possible. We've convened meetings more regularly throughout Covid-19, which have been regularly attended by over 100 members as we’ve continued to hear about each local authority’s response to rising levels of food insecurity and food bank usage, the immense efforts of those at the forefront of the Covid-19 food response and the support on offer including the London Community Response. It’s exemplified and reinforced the value of partnership working and as we move towards recovery, we’ll continue convening the group to connect those committed to improving London’s food system, whether they’re involved in public health, community food growing, school meal provision or food aid.

Campaigns

Veg Cities

Response, Resilience and Recovery: London’s Food Response...

27/11/2020

Sustainable Food Places
c/o Soil Association
Spear House
51 Victoria Street
Bristol
BS1 6AD
info@sustainablefoodplaces.org

Through the power of partnerships we make healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where people live.

2024 © Sustainable Food Places
Data privacy & cookies

Sustainable Food Places is powered by:

Soil Association

Food Matters

Sustain

Funded by:

The National Lottery Community Fund

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation