We are extremely excited to announce that we have started work on the Procurement For Good (P4G) project as of the beginning of October 2024.
Procurement for Good (P4G) is a £1.9m research project led by Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), in collaboration with Garden Organic, the Open Food Network and Social Farms and Gardens, which aims to create a more sustainable food system in the UK. P4G received funding from the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council and will run for four years. With a focus on place-based public procurement, the project will examine ways to improve opportunities for food buyers in schools, hospitals, and other public sector organisations to include sustainable, locally produced food in their menus and to create new markets for small- and medium-scale producers.
It will use a combination of knowledge exchange, peer-to-peer learning, and technical innovation to help establish new place-based food procurement networks and monitor their impacts. The project will work with four pioneering food hubs in England, Wales and Scotland: Cambridge Food Hub, Growing Communities Better Food Shed, Cultivate Food Hub and Propagate/Galloway Food Hub.
This project invites us to extend the functionality of our open source digital platform to enable food producers to sell to public sector organisations through food hubs. Our work in this area began with the Sustainable Food Procurement Hubs project in Wales; an 18-month project which provided us valuable insight into procurement and a solid foundation upon which to build. We are now pleased to continue this work to find the best solutions for the four hubs involved in this project, their buyers and their producers over a longer project timeframe. Alongside our work, Garden Organic and Social Farms & Gardens will play a key role in supporting the food hubs and promoting knowledge exchange with food hubs and public sector buyers across the country. CAWR will be leading on the research and impact side of the project.
On Monday 14th October the project team met at Coventry University’s campus in Ryton for a kick-off meeting. It was a productive and energising day with lots of useful conversations and the opportunity for everyone to meet face-to-face. The plan over the next few months is for the project team to visit all four of the food hubs and for baseline surveys to take place. Keep an eye out for our monthly blogs as we continue our work on this exciting project!
Download and read the official press release here.
Some of the P4G project team at the Coventry University Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience