Our latest news, blogs, ideas, tips and opinion pieces
Find out what we got up to in The Community Garden at Shambala Festival 2022
At Shambala Festival 2022, we hosted The Community Garden - including workshops on non-hierarchical working, open table discussions and activist networking sessions.
A vision and mission for the Food Data Collaboration: commons governance in action
The project's first achievement has been to create our collective vision and mission. So how did we get there?
Celebrating the seasonal cycles: embracing nature’s work and finding new ways to look at food
Midsummer, Summer Solstice: Connecting with the seasons: Introduction to the collection Welcome to the wheel of the year collection. A series of blogs on the solstices and equinoxes that punctuate our lives, seasons, and farming practices. The Wheel of the Year is...
Embracing a seasonal diet: the powerful benefits of eating with the land’s yearly rhythms
IntroductionThere would’ve been a time that eating seasonally was simple. But with a globalised food system and an abundance of unseasonal produce ever-available to us, it’s not always so straightforward. In this blog post, we’ll look at what eating seasonally...
Introducing the Food Data Collaboration: a new food data interoperability project with big potential
A new two-year Food Data Collaboration project funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, is starting in March 2022. Project Coordinator Sophie Paterson explains what’s planned, who’s involved and why it’s needed.
Business Model Blog: Cambridge Food Hub
In this series of guest blogs, Lynne Davis from the Open Food Network describes the business models of some of the food hubs and producers in their community. Here, in the sixth blog of the series, Lynne introduces Cambridge Food Hub.Cambridge Food Hub is a...
Business Model Blog: Stroudco
In this series of guest blogs Lynne Davis, from the Open Food Network, describes the business models of some of the food hubs and producers in their community. Here, in the fifth blog of the series, Lynne introduces Stroudco Food Hub.
Offering your shoppers store cupboard items at wholesale prices
The full Essential catalogue is now available on the Open Food Network (OFN), updated six times per year in line with product and price updates from Essential.
Business Model Blog Cockermouth Country Market
In this series of blogs, Lynne Davis from the Open Food Network, describes the business models of some of the food hubs and producers in their community. Here, in the fourth blog of the series, Lynne introduces Cockermouth Country Market.
Business Model: Blog Sole of Discretion
In this series of blogs, Lynne Davis, CEO of the Open Food Network, describes the business models of some of the food hubs and producers in their community. Here, in the third blog of the series, she introduces Sole of Discretion. Sole of Discretion is a radically...
How to evade the Hungry Gap: an ethical guide for eaters and sellers
The hungry gap is a time when seeds that you’ve sown aren’t ready and whatever you stored in the winter isn’t good to eat anymore. In this blog post, we’ll look at what the hungry gap is in more detail. We’ll explore the gap’s origins, why we should embrace it and...
Hybiau Caffael Bwyd Cynaliadwy yng Nghymru
Dros y flwyddyn ddiwethaf, mae'r Open Food Network UK wedi bod yn gweithio ar gynllun peilot arloesol i ddangos dichonoldeb cyflenwi bwyd lleol ar blât cyhoeddus Cymru. Gan weithio gyda phartneriaid o Ffermydd a Gerddi Cymdeithasol, Cultivate, Cymdeithas...
Sustainable Food Procurement Hubs in Wales
Over the past year, the Open Food Network (OFN) has been working on a groundbreaking pilot to demonstrate the feasibility of supplying local food onto the Welsh public plate. Working with partners from Social Farms & Gardens, Cultivate, Development Trusts...
In response to the Food Research Collaboration’s discussion paper
Natalie Neumann and Rosalind Sharpe from the Food Research Collaboration have created a Food Research Collaboration Discussion Paper titled “Sustainable food hubs and food system resilience: Plugging gaps or forging the way ahead?”This is the last report in the...
Open source tech: why you should care and how you can contribute
Open source is an integral part of who we are at the Open Food Network: our platform, the way we work and much more. It’s even in our name! So, let’s talk about it. In today’s society, open source software exists as an antithesis to the systems we have grown...
Women in Food and Farming
From farmers and food hub coordinations to home cooks and food tech developers, women are central to our food systems world wide. But other systems, like the patriarchy, undermine their contribution. At the Open Food Network, we try to counteract the impact of...
Starting the year at the Oxford Real Farming Conference
It was a great opportunity for us to share with our community some of the great work we have been doing and connect with like-minded people in an environment like the ORFC. And, we left Oxford full of hope and energy after meeting, hearing, and witnessing amazing speakers from all over the world.
The Open Food Network team goes to Hereford
Let’s try to picture the mycelium, billions of intricate connections building nature’s very own communication network. This, for us, is what we see the Open Food Network becoming. A network that connects people to each other to help build inter-connected communities.
As a fully remote team, connecting online can be easy with all the technology at our disposal. But connecting on a deeper level is harder, the same way it is harder for each of us individually to relate to each other and ourselves when we spend a lot of our time behind a screen.
Celebrating the seasonal cycles: between autumn and winter
Can you feel the air getting crisper? We have entered the darker half of the year at Equinox. All the harvests are in and nature is preparing for shorter and colder days. The trees are starting to put on their beautiful red-toned apparel and the animals are starting to hoard food. For us, it is also time to prepare, to reflect on our harvests. We may be feeling a bit of melancholia and nostalgia, but don't worry October is also the month of the fire festival, Samhain… So let's talk about it.
Gain more customers by selling your amazing local food with local hubs
Set up your producer account The open food network platform is a great way for producers to be able to sell their produce to customer. But it also allows producers to broaden their market by linking them to other local food hubs and distributors to sell their...