About us
What we do
The Open Food Network UK is part of the Open Food Network; a global network of people and organisations working together to build a new food system. Together with other instances around the world, we develop open and shared resources, knowledge and software to support a better food system.
We believe a sustainable and resilient food system needs to reconnect producers and consumers. We aim to empower people and communities and give them the tools and knowledge to develop the food systems they need to build new food systems for their community.
Our flagship project is an open source software platform that makes it easy to create innovative, independent, community food enterprises. The software can be used by farmers to sell directly to customers and for collaborating with other local producers to sell together in a ‘hub’ model, where multiple producers can offer produce through one shopfront to create thriving, viable enterprises. People have used the power of the hub feature to create sustainable local food hubs, group buying collectives, online farmers’ markets, and more.
Our history
Open Food Network was founded in 2012 in Australia and is now operating in 21 countries, with more joining us every year. Open Food Network UK was established in 2014 and over the last ten years we have facilitated the sale of over £7m worth of sustainable, locally produced food. We are always keen to hear from those who share our passion to achieve our vision of a food system that is fair, sustainable and resilient.
Our software
We are an open source software platform, which means that our source code is freely available and open for contributions and feedback from anyone (see our Github repository for more information). Unlike closed source (or proprietary) software platforms whose purpose is profit, the goal of open source software is collaborative development. Letting users and developers contribute to the code openly allows for a more inclusive development process that incorporates skills and needs across the user base, not just from those with the loudest voices or the biggest wallets, and being open source is integral to our values as an organisation.
Our organisation
As well as being an open source project globally, in the UK we’re also structured as a Community Interest Company. This means that we are a social enterprise existing to provide benefits to the community, rather than to private shareholders. All of our assets are therefore only used to meet our social objectives and as a team we function as a sociocracy, using a non-hierarchical governance structure. You can find out more about our team here.
Our values
As a global collective, we share a set of values and beliefs that underpin everything we do.
Global Commons
Everyone in the community co-creates and shares responsibility for our global commons (the Open Food Network community itself, the Open Food Network platform, the digital commons and more generally, the land, air, water and soil).
Relationships
We put great value on the interconnections between people; and between people and all other beings.
Ecosystems
We support farmers and producers moving towards regenerative forms of agriculture, that (re)build resilient natural systems, taking into account the soil, air, water and biodiversity of our planet for future generations.
Transparency
We believe fundamentally in openness both in the platform we are building and the organisation that supports it.
Empowerment
Our project creates conditions in which people empower themselves to create the food systems that work for them; this gives people a real say in their livelihoods and the creation of their local food economy.
Subsidiarity
In the context of global collaboration we believe that decisions are most effective when they are made at the most local level possible; trusting all stakeholders to make decisions that best serve the needs of the whole community.
Kindness
We are building a people system. Care and empathy for each other lie at its heart; celebrating respect, solidarity, diversity and inclusivity.
Constant Emergence
We live in a perpetually evolving world, which requires constant agility, organic growth and letting go.
Systemic Change
We believe in a global transition that addresses the root causes of current ills, not its symptoms. Part of this is our commitment to decolonisation and prefiguring systems that we want to be brought into being.