Welcome to our new website! We are excited to be able to bring so many things together here, to help people develop a better local food system.
The Arun & Chichester Food Partnership has ambitious plans. We want enough good food to be accessible to all – today and tomorrow. This means we act to increase food budgets, increase the amount of food available locally, improve local food environments, ensure there is a strong safety net and, in addition to all the above, try to improve the larger systems in which we live. This means promoting organic and agroecological farming methods and careers in the farming and local food industries, developing solutions to systemic vulnerabilities and acting to improve the food system and wider financial structures through our research and campaigns.
This dual focus – on the individual and hyper-local levels as well as the larger food system – means that we are working toward a more resilient, healthier and reliable food environment for all, which can better cope with the changes we will face from climate change, major disrupters such as wars, transportation issues and economic challenges.
We dream of and work toward a world in which we do not rely on importing 80% of the fruit and 50% of the vegetables bought in the UK. A world where intensive animal farming is not polluting our rivers. A world where careers in farming and food industries are given the value which they deserve. A world where everyone has access to enough good, nutritious food.
Chichester District is fortunate to have multiple community growing opportunities, where people can learn, grow and flourish together, with the many physical and mental benefits of this outdoor pursuit. We are running a pilot to expand community growing in Arun District to bring these benefits locally, as well as working to develop more across Chichester District.
We are also working with local groups of organisations to improve the food landscape in specific areas, developing local answers to local needs, as identified by the people in that community.
We have written a 3-year strategy and action plan, where you can see our detailed ambitions and planned actions across a wide range of topics. This does not capture all that we are doing or that we will do – we will respond to needs and opportunities as we see them, to improve the food system of Arun & Chichester Districts.
We hope that you want to join us on this journey. If you haven’t already, please sign up to our monthly newsletter. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook to keep up to date on the latest news, or contact the development officers with your ideas, plans or projects.
