Rotherham Food Network has won an award for tackling food challenges that are faced by communities and make local, healthy, and sustainable food available to all residents across the borough.
The Sustainable Food Place award recognises the holistic approach taken towards food and honours the positive changes made towards food issues ranging from healthy food for all to reducing food waste.
Rotherham Food Network was formed in 2022 and is a partnership made up of 26 organisations including Rotherham Council, Voluntary Action Rotherham, Rotherfed, and many more.
Achieving the bronze award recognises the steps that Rotherham has taken to raise awareness of food challenges, promote and produce locally sourced produce, tackle food poverty, and more. As well as celebrating the success of the network and its members who are actively making positive changes to Rotherham’s food sector, system, and to the way food is viewed as a society.
Rotherham Food Network is at the very beginning of their journey and welcome others to join to help improve the food system.
Riverside Catering, run by the Council, is the provider of school meals for over 14,000 school pupils and is accredited by the Soil Association through a ‘Food for Life Served Here’ Bronze award, to provide assurance of their healthy and sustainable food offer.
Clifton Learning Partnership is currently supporting a Roma community in Eastwood who are experiencing high levels of food poverty. Volunteers are running a local allotment project where honey is collected from onsite beehives before it is sold to raise money to grow local produce and to contribute towards their social supermarket, Eastwood Pantry.
Rotherham Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Care and Public Health, Cllr Joanna Baker-Rogers, said: “It is so important that everyone has access to nutritious and sustainable food across the borough.
“Achieving this award emphasises the amazing work and dedication put in by everyone involved to ensure that this is a possibility. Although there is still a long way to go, we are immensely proud of the work accomplished so far and cannot wait to see where this journey leads.”
Leon Ballin, the Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager, said: “Rotherham Food Network has shown just what can be achieved when creative and committed people work together to make healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where they live.
“While there is still much to do and many challenges to overcome, Rotherham has helped to set a benchmark for the other 100+ members of the UK Sustainable Food Places Network to follow. They should be very proud of the work that they have been doing to transform our collective food culture and food system for the better.”
Find out more about the Rotherham Food Network and how you can get involved here.