Our Mission:
Food

We are working in partnership with residents, businesses, and community organisations to ensure every person in Camden has access to nutritious, affordable and sustainable food.

The Food Mission isn’t just about helping people who don’t have enough to eat – it’s about fixing the bigger issues that prevent people from accessing food. Factors like low income, housing, and access to shops all affect whether people can regularly get healthy, affordable food. All of these things are connected, and together they make up what we call the food system.

In Camden, the Food Mission is working to change how the local food system works by helping residents to access, enjoy and make choices about food in new ways that feel positive and empowering.

This includes how people buy their food, prepare it and consume it, and dispose of waste. It also goes further, recognising that food is also about livelihoods, the Mission explores how the local food sector can provide meaningful employment and support people into secure, well-paid and high-quality work.

Ultimately, the Food Mission is about creating a fairer, healthier, and more sustainable food environment for everyone in Camden.

This mission aims to ensure that:

• Every resident has food security, so they no longer need to rely on crisis food support.

• Every resident has access to healthy food.

• Good food is the foundation for Camden’s children and young people to thrive and lead successful lives.

• We take action to help the climate through changing Camden’s food system, so we produce, access and consume food in a more sustainable way.

We want to change the way the food system works in Camden. This means:

• Pushing for changes to food regulation and policy

• Influencing how food is bought and sold

• Supporting and inspiring new food projects

• Inspiring people to come together to grow, cook or distribute food

• Building and sharing insight and data

We are supporting the development of The Camden Food Partnership, which brings together food providers, policy makers, academics and activists to develop new ideas and to ensure we are working together to make Camden’s food system work better for everyone.

We are giving funding and support to communities to imagine, launch and grow new food projects and to support the fantastic work already happening in Camden. These include community cafés and kitchens, workshops to help residents cook more healthily and teach children about healthy eating, supper clubs for disabled young people and food co-operatives, where residents can save money by buying food together.

• We want to expand the Camden Food Partnership and encourage people and organisations to join.

• We will launch a new food mission project fund, to support the fantastic work already happening in Camden.

• We want to unlock under-used community kitchens for new projects.

• We will support the development of more resident-led cooperatives to encourage communities to work together to buy food they all need and will use.

• We will prioritise a “money-first” approach, helping support people in need with cash and vouchers to give them greater independence over the food they can access.

We can’t achieve the Food Mission alone. That’s why we would love to work with you on initiatives to maximise the impact we can make together.

Everyone can get involved – here are a few examples of how:

• Join the Camden Food Partnership

• Get inspiration on how we can transform Camden’s food system on the Sustain and Food Foundation.

• Apply to the We Make Camden Kit for funding and support to start or expand a Food Mission project in your local area.

If you’d like to get involved in driving this Mission forward, email us at WeMakeCamden@camden.gov.uk – we would love to hear from you!