Stirling as a county produces fantastic food. Our communities grow and cook together, some of our schools have tiny farms, and creative and inspiring food projects can be found across the region.

Yet Stirling also faces challenges across the food system – from inequalities and inaccessibility of good food in urban and rural settings, to a food landscape that is often unhealthy and unsustainable. There is much to celebrate and much to change.

Stirling Food Partnership has ambitions towards a sustainable and fair food system which over 3 years has gathered support from a wide range of food communities. We invite anyone to reconnect with our cross sector partnership of NHS Forth Valley, Stirling Council, Stirling Voluntary Enterprise, Start Up Stirling and Forth Valley Food & Drink and encourage people to present opportunities for collaborative working.

Sustainable Food Places (SFP) offers a way for places to become better with food. It is a framework for change, a network, and an awards/accreditation scheme – on the scale of a city or place/region. SFP supports this food system change through sharing good practice, connecting people via the network of SFP members, and providing resources and support. There is much to learn from the network of over 80 partnerships across the UK, all of which have made some incredible changes to their food systems, and all share core principles of the SFP approach.

Our partnership is supported by our lead organisation for Scotland, Nourish Scotland who particularly help us connect to government change and good food movements at a strategic level.

The core principle of the SFP approach is to enable change through a Food Partnership – a cross-sector partnership that represents a wide cross-section of the food system (health, economy, social justice, knowledge, environment, etc.) and that works across six key issues.

These are:

• Promoting healthy and sustainable food to the public;
• Tackling food poverty, diet-related ill health and access to affordable healthy food;
• Building community food knowledge, skills, resources and projects;
• Promoting a vibrant and diverse sustainable food economy;
• Transforming catering and food procurement;
• Reducing waste and the ecological footprint of the food system.

To achieve Sustainable Food Places designation for the Stirling region, we believe that working in partnership will provide a transparent and inclusive ‘home’ for food activity in the region, increase communication and collaboration around food issues, and ultimately improve Stirling’s food system for the better.