SFP’s first ‘FAIR food Star’ is awarded to Camden Food Partnership

SFP's first 'FAIR food Star' is awarded to Camden Food Partnership 

The Camden Food Partnership in London is the first Sustainable Food Place to receive the FAIR food Star. The Star celebrates the significant work it is doing to support and embed representation and justice in its culture, practice and the people involved. 

Camden 

The London Borough of Camden is a busy inner London borough with a vibrant and diverse population made up of communities from a wide range of ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Camden's diversity is its strength but also the basis for entrenched inequalities, many of which are reflected in the borough's food system*. 

This is not unusual – food partnerships across the UK experience similar inequalities based on societal injustice, inequity and discrimination.  This has been the starting point for the work SFP is doing on representation and justice under the banner of FAIR food in response to a question: How can we ensure that our food partnerships genuinely represent their communities and avoid perpetuating the injustice, exclusion and discrimination that exists in society?  

A big question with no simple answer. However, Camden Food Partnership is leading the way in demonstrating how to hard-wire representation and justice into its organisation and embed active anti-racism in its work. 

 Representation and Justice 

If I was living in Camden, and I was thinking about getting involved in a project about sustainability and the local food system, I'd probably start with the Camden Food Partnership.  But what if I wasn't sure if I'd be welcomed, fit in and feel comfortable there?  And what if I was a person of colour uncertain about the ethos, culture and safeguards of the partnership and the attitudes of the people towards me? A quick look into the Camden Food Partnership (CFP) would tell me everything I would need to know.   

CFP is an organisation…  

• with 'Equity and Inclusion' at the top of its list of values,  

• with a Charter that 'recognises and celebrates the cultures, traditions and food heritage of Camden's communities',   

• that platforms and signal-boosts partner organisations and projects rooted in and reflecting Camden's diverse communities  

• that publishes a Racial Justice Statement emphasising a strong 'commitment to being an actively anti-racist and inclusive partnership', and 

• that applies and weaves representation and justice throughout its food strategy, action plan, commitments, terms of reference and governance.   

CFP doesn't just make these statements and commitments – it embeds and normalises them in the day-to-day work of the partnership, its governance and its culture.  Far from being window-dressing, CFP strongly walks-the-walk through its collaborations with partners, through the projects it delivers, through the principles it upholds and through alignment with Camden Council's wider diversity and justice campaign, 'We make Camden'.   

FAIR food 

This year SFP has co-produced and launched FAIR food – a framework for action on inclusion and representation – supporting food partnerships to effectively consider the way they work, the culture of their organisations and the people involved through the lens of race, equity, diversity and inclusion.  FAIR food is now incorporated into the SFP awards framework, encouraging action towards building more representative and fair food partnerships.  The aim is for this to be mainstreamed across the SFP programme and woven into our 6 key issues, our Toolkit and resources.  FAIR food presents a set of principles and a methodology for practically applying them based on and in response to local context and priorities.  Further to this, and emerging directly from the FAIR food co-design sessions, was the need for a way to platform and champion partnerships taking exemplary and significant action – a tangible, coveted recognition and celebration of good practice.  This is the FAIR food Star. 

Camden's SFP Bronze Award and FAIR food Star 

Camden Food Partnership's excellent application for an SFP Bronze Award demonstrates how the partnership has evolved from an initial focus on food insecurity (as the Camden Food Poverty Alliance) to a wider local good food movement with a whole food system scope.  It also demonstrates how a Borough Council can effectively support and participate in a food partnership co-hosted with a local charity – Feast With Us – establishing a robust and well-balanced relationship.  For these and many other reasons CFP has been awarded the Bronze Award and is on a strong trajectory towards Silver. 

In addition to this CFP has now been awarded SFP's first FAIR food Star – holding the partnership up as an exemplar of how to embed FAIR food and take representation and justice seriously.  Camden Food Partnership is effectively setting the bar on how to do this – ensuring that the partnership reflects its communities and actively tackles racism, discrimination and marginalisation head-on. 

This important accolade will be celebrated at SFP's Day of Celebration and Action in November and through SFP's social media channels. 

Many congratulations to everyone involved. 

*Extract from the introduction to Camden Food Partnership's SFP Bronze Award submission 

Ben Messer – Food Matters 

SFP Lead on Representation and Justice