Good Food Governance
Celebrating 10 years of Bristol Food Network, and way more!
By Jane Stevenson and Joy Carey
With Bristol Food Network celebrating more than 10 years incorporated as Community Interest Company (social enterprise), two of the network’s founding directors reflect on the organisation’s history and achievements.
If you meant to read this, then you probably have heard of Bristol Food Network (BFN) – but would you be able to say exactly what it is that we do? That can prove pretty elusive when you try to pin it down.
But if you’re reading this by accident, and you haven’t heard of us, then we’ve done what we intended – to be a behind-the-scenes driving force, constantly pushing to keep food on the local agenda without simultaneously pushing BFN to the forefront. Shining a light on all the great food projects and enterprises that are running across the city – creating a focus on our collective impact without shining that light on ourselves. Making connections and joining things up. We have always worked towards making the story of what’s going on in food in the city greater than the sum of its parts, and to put Bristol on the map as a Sustainable Food City.
Bristol Food Network grew out of the 1990s Bristol Food Links, which focused on promoting and making connections around ‘local food’. Bristol City Council revived the project around 2008, with a newsletter and in 2009 Claire Milne wrote a far-ranging Sustainable Food Strategy for the city. When funding for the project ran out again, Forum for the Future took over supporting what had by then become ‘Bristol Food Network’.
In 2011, Forum ran a trial weekend for what would become Big Green Week. This featured a solar-themed open day on the Saturday, and the first ‘Get Growing Garden Trail’ on the Sunday. A slimmed-down version of the ambitious Sustainable Food Strategy was distilled into a funding bid for ‘Dig Bristol’ which would have focused on expanding community growing in Bristol, but which was sadly turned-down.
Forum’s objectives shifted, and BFN found itself without a host organisation, and run by a small group of persistent volunteers.
Despite this challenge, we still managed to get some small pots of funding from Bristol City Council and Public Health (which was at that time a separate organisation). We devised and ran the ‘Bristol Independents Campaign’ to support shopping in Bristol’s independent outlets, and to offer a positive alternative to all the anti-supermarket campaigns. We carried on running the ‘Get Growing Garden Trail’, and we worked with the Food Policy Council and Bristol City Council to run food conferences, produce the Bristol Food Charter (2012), and a Good Food Plan for Bristol (2013).
We’re often asked about our secret of success at keeping food on the city’s agenda. The answer is persistence and informally meeting to discuss options and hatch plans. At some point during this period, a group of us decided over coffee in Riverstation, that we’d like to go for Silver in the Sustainable Food Cities awards – without having any funding or staff or means to make this happen.
And then in 2013, Bristol was announced as the European Green Capital for 2015, and suddenly there was a massive surge of interest in food in the city. The BBC started convening gatherings, looking at the possibility of a new sort of food festival in the city, which they intended to run as a trial in 2014 for a big splurge in 2015. This ambition didn’t come with any funding or staff either, but a small group of people were very interested in making it all happen. At the end of 2013 this group came together with the core BFN volunteers, with the aim of forming a Community Interest Company that could offer a sound structure for hosting both the festival, and the ambition to make Bristol a Silver Sustainable Food City.
So in January 2014, Bristol Food Network officially became a Community Interest Company. This blog was supposed to mark 10 years of being a CIC, but as with many voluntary activities, this one is running a bit late – so here we are, celebrating at the end of our tenth year!
Well, continuing to do what really matters to us! Which is to coordinate the Good Food 2030 collaborative approach to making Bristol’s food system better for communities, climate and nature. Why? Because we believe that as a city food movement, we can make a greater impact by coordinating our respective efforts. Bristol Food Network is founded on the belief that Bristol’s wonderful innovative food movers and shakers can and must find ways to work together, then we truly can be greater than the sum of our parts!
To stay updated on future events, job opportunities and news, don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter at bristolgoodfood.org/newsletter.
So, what change do you want to see happen that will transform food in Bristol by 2030? Do you already have an idea for how Bristol can make this happen? Join the conversation now.
* Required field