Our latest news, blogs, ideas, tips and opinion pieces
Can we make you love accounting?
Many small food businesses start with passion. Maybe as a maker you start out selling to friends and family and soon realise that there is a demand for what you make. Maybe you start out with a vision to make healthy food more accessible in your area. Keeping good...
Big Improvements to your Shopfront
The latest release of the Open Food Network was deployed this week. Although it doesn’t look different we’ve made some big changes to improve the performance of your shopfront behind the scenes. Shopfronts with up to 10,000 products will load within 2 seconds. This...
In support of Extinction Rebellion
Several people in the Open Food Network (OFN) have been drawn to support the Extinction Rebellion (XR) in recent days. They are joining thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life who are taking the extraordinary (for them) step of taking to the streets and...
Win a Marketing Support Package for your Shop!
At the Open Food Network, our primary mission is to help food enterprises to thrive! So we're offering two of our food enterprises the chance to WIN bespoke marketing support to help promote and build your enterprise in the lead up to Christmas and beyond. Two...
Welcome to a faster, more efficient OFN!
Over the years we’ve been running OFN we’ve been working tirelessly to build the tools that food enterprises need to succeed. With our tiny, part time development team working remotely in the UK, Australia, Catalonia, Portugal, Philippines and France and people...
Olivier De Schutter – OFN Ambassador
Olivier De Schutter says "I was for six years UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food. I have been working on food issues for about ten years and I came to impose myself, finally, three rules. The first is to consume local as much as possible and I am a member...
Can Food Hubs Help Stop Climate Change?
A nationwide study to better understand how food hubs can contribute to a more sustainable food system. Open Food Network are teaming up with researchers at the University of East Anglia as part of a nationwide study to explore how food hubs like ours contribute to...
How possible is plastic free?
In the last 12-18 months the devastating consequences of single-use plastic pollution has come to the forefront of public debate and made many of us question our shopping and lifestyle habits. Many attribute the heart breaking scenes of plastic packaging found in...
Linking OFN to your accounting package
For most people, one of the most tedious aspects of running a local food business is keeping the accounts. After all, we're in this to build communities, to support producers, to make great food more accessible... Not because we love spreadsheets, receipts and...
Celebrating our First DevHack!
Our very first Dev Hack was a success! Thank you to everyone that made it possible! We spent two very productive days coding, testing and working on real issues for the global open source project. It was a great opportunity to expand our exciting community, bring...
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...