Our latest news, blogs, ideas, tips and opinion pieces
How to prepare your food enterprise for a second national lockdown
With a series of national and local lockdown restrictions reintroduced in response to an increase in Covid cases, it's likely we are heading for another full national lockdown this winter. Some supermarkets are already putting limits on loo roll, flour and pasta in...
Reflections on diversity, food and farming in Britain
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a British farmer? Do you picture a white middle-class male who happens to reside in the countryside, understands the hidden culture of rural life, and seamlessly navigates the complex terrain of the...
A three step guide to improve your social media marketing
A well planned social media strategy can be a life saver for any food enterprise. It’s an easy, efficient and inexpensive way to grow your sales and generate a stronger relationship with your customers. As social media is such an essential tool to connect with your...
Lessons from COVID – Building resilience into our food systems
It might not have been as bad as some predicted, but COVID-19 certainly showed us that our food systems are vulnerable in times of crisis. In this blog Lynne Davis explores the lessons we can learn from the pandemic shock to build resilient future food systems. The...
Join our team as Software Support
The Open Food Network UK team are seeking a passionate and creative person to join our team in supporting our users - the food producers and food enterprises that are in our network. About the Open Food Network (OFN) During COVID the Open Food Network UK has grown...
How to immediately improve your food enterprise’s email marketing
Get Started!Email marketing is the most effective way to communicate with your customers. For example, an email is five times more likely to be seen than a Facebook post. This is because the Facebook algorithm only delivers your business page posts to a small...
Join Us! As our Food Hub Experience Designer
The Open Food Network UK team are seeking a passionate and creative customer and service experience designer to help us refine and optimise the end to end experience for our customers - the food producers and food hubs that are our network. About the Open Food...
Can I email my shoppers? And other frequently asked questions…
Regular emails are one of the most effective ways of keeping your community of shoppers in the loop. From experience we know that shoppers are more likely to order when they are reminded before the close of order cycles. We know they are more likely to feel part of...
How to help your customers commit to a better food system
After working so hard to supply food during lockdown, no enterprise wants to see their sales go back to pre-Covid levels. But as lockdown lifts, some customers may be returning to previous buying behaviours, like shopping in supermarkets. So how do we...
7 marketing tips to help you retain customers beyond Covid-19Â
Has your food enterprise seen overwhelming growth since lockdown began? The upside, in what has been a devastating experience for many, is that the Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the profile of small-scale and local food distribution. This means more people are...
Meet Field Bakery and Mill at Gothelney Farm
Meet Field Bakery and Mill and discover how and why the Open Food Network UK is part of the story behind this pioneering field to fork collaboration.
Sustainable Food Procurement Hubs in Wales
Over the past year, the Open Food Network UK has been working on an innovative pilot scheme to demonstrate the feasibility of supplying local food to the Welsh public plate. Working with partners from Social Farms and Gardens, Cultivate, Development Trust...
From Just in Case towards local food resilience
Following an inspiring presentation at Groundswell 2025, Open Food Network UK's Nick Weir reflects on Professor Tim Lang's Just in Case report and explores OFN's role in strengthening local food resilience.
Connections and inspiration abound at Groundswell 2025
Open Food Network UK looks back at an inspiring Groundswell 2025, featuring the Procurement for Good project, the Wild Venison Network and more.
A trip to Cultivate, Powys as part of the Procurement For Good project
The Procurement For Good project team visited Cultivate in Newtown and other inspiring community food hubs in Powys, celebrating local sustainable food initiatives, new grower schemes, and the future of public sector food procurement. On a sunny Wednesday in April,...
Visit to Better Food Shed with Procurement For Good
Continuing our series of hub visits as part of the Procurement For Good project, in April we travelled to London to visit the Better Food Shed
Flower Grower Collective: Collaboration. Community. Creativity.
We are very pleased that The Flower Grower Collective (FGC) has been awarded funding through the prestigious Farming Innovation Programme.
Visit to Propagate & Galloway Food Hub
At the end of January the Procurement For Good (P4G) project team travelled to Dumfries for the first of four hub visits.
The Open Food Network has been invited to be an ambassador of the EU Proximity and Social Economy Platform
The Open Food Network is now an ambassador for the EU Proximity and Social Economy Platform! Diesis is a global network of social entrepreneurs supporting the development of the social economy, social entrepreneurship and social innovation. The Network aims to...
Manda Scott joins OFN UK as an ambassador
We are very pleased to welcome Manda Scott as an ambassador. This is what she said about the OFN: "You're being the change we need to see. At a core level, we need total systemic change and shifting our food/farming system to something based in co-operation and...