Key reports from last year have begun to signal something important: taking citizens and communities along with policy changes isn’t enough. Instead, actively involving them from the beginning is emerging as one of the most powerful drivers of change in our food systems.

This trend was backed up by several AFN Network+ funded projects that have been putting this into practice, choosing community engagement as a way in which to achieve their biodiversity and climate goals. 

Quick Take

• Citizens want government to act on food and health. The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) citizen dialogues found that, after deep engagement, the public supports government intervention on dietary change, providing a clear mandate to act and rebutting ‘nanny state’ rhetoric.
• Local food partnerships already rank community engagement as their top enabler of progress. A Sustainable Food Places survey of 57 partnerships found community engagement and participation were rated above all other factors in strengthening local food systems.
• Community structures are key to food resilience, but they can’t do it alone. Tim Lang’s work on UK food shock preparedness highlights the potential of existing community organisations to build resilience, but warns that government coordination is needed to make this effective.
• AFN-funded projects are putting this into practice. From hedgerow surveys in South Wales to culturally relevant food growing in south London and net zero knowledge exchange in Orkney, funded projects show what community-led change looks like.
• Inclusion remains a challenge. Recruiting diverse and under-represented voices, particularly in rural areas, needs to be a prerequisite for engagement projects rather than an afterthought.

Deep dive

Refresher: Key reports highlighting the power of citizens

Citizens want government action on food and health

One of the most significant pieces of evidence came from the FFCC. Published in 2025, the Citizen Manifesto to Fix Food was the culmination of over 75 community conversations in 12 different parts of the country, to find out what people really want from their food system. 

The result is a manifesto to fix food, and a compelling rebuke to the ‘nanny state’ rhetoric, where governments have assumed intervening on dietary change and health is unpalatable to the public. 

After deep engagement with diverse citizens, findings provide government with a mandate to act, the FFCC found, demonstrating that the public wants action around food to protect health, while understanding the complexity.

Further resources: Read the briefing, watch the webinar or read the full manifesto on the FFCC website.

Local food partnerships already rank community engagement as their top enabler of progress

In early 2025, the Sustainable Food Places (SFP) network launched its Partnership Impact & Priorities Survey to review the challenges and priorities of food partnerships across the UK.

A total of 57 partnerships took part, representing a broad cross-section in terms of geography, partnership model, and maturity, and responding to a broad range of questions.

Over 80% of respondents (47 out of 57) felt they have made moderate to strong progress in strengthening their local food system, with most selecting ‘community engagement and participation’ as the top enabler in helping them do this. The relatively high ranking of community engagement points to the value placed on public participation and collaboration as core elements of local food systems work.

On the other hand, respondents highlighted how community input remains informal or under-resourced, and not yet fully embedded in strategic decisions. Partnerships also reflected on structural challenges, such as the difficulty of convening diverse voices across large rural areas. Several respondents drew a distinction between being community-engaged and community-led, recognising they are on a journey toward the latter.

Further resources: Read the survey report. 

Community structures are key to food resilience, but they can’t do it alone

While laying bare the UK’s shocking lack of preparedness for future food shocks, what Tim Lang’s much-talked about report, Just In Case, also noted was the role of community structures in filling this gap. 

In a webinar given to the AFN+ to discuss the work, Lang noted there are opportunities to expand community resilience, via existing structures such as community gardens, Citizens Action, Citizens Advice and Neighborhood Watches.

He also warned that while such community organisations can help build resilience, government facilitation and coordination is needed to strengthen them to the point of protecting food system resilience and manage a crisis. 

Further resources: Read the briefing or watch the webinar.

AFN-funded projects are putting these ideas into practice

These findings from work across the UK are reflected in the experience of projects funded by the AFN+, which recognised the power of community to achieve their biodiversity or climate action goals in 2025.

Slade Farm Organics and community nature restoration

Farmer Polly Davies, of Slade Farm Organics in South Wales, used funding to design and carry out two public hedgerow survey days on the farm, attended by local residents, amateur naturalists and families. While adding to a bank of evidence around the benefits of managed hedgerows in sustainable farming systems, the project also fostered community connection through hands-on surveys and shared discovery. This approach no doubt helped raise awareness of nature-friendly farming in the local community, and would be a simple model to replicate across other farms as biodiversity and climate action play increasingly prominent roles in land use decisions.

Read more. 

Community food growing in Kingston, south London 

Gathering community views to shape a local council food strategy while focusing on culturally-specific food growing were some of the key wins of a project in Kingston, south London, focusing on “net zero through inclusion”. The project evaluated the impact of an urban farm that grows culturally relevant Asian vegetables in the borough, and helped bring together other local food growing groups for workshops at Kingston University, where views on barriers to food growing were shared with the local authority, helping form the five-year food strategy.

Read more.

A blueprint for scale by Farm Carbon Toolkit in Orkney

When community-scale net zero projects are taken together, they can help demonstrate how impact ripples outwards and scale is possible. That has been the effect of projects by Farm Carbon Toolkit, with funding from the AFN+, which facilitated vital community engagement and expert knowledge exchange. In Scotland’s Orkney Islands, members of Farm Carbon Toolkit, a farmer-led collective that facilitates carbon calculations, used funding to meet and take questions from local people and businesses looking to begin their net zero transition. Overall the visit was described as a “catalyst” for a community whose remote location often discourages such in-person events, helping them to address difficult issues and take action on climate change.

Read more. 

Inclusion remains a challenge

• While community engagement and empowerment is developing and gaining in traction, there are significant barriers to inclusion and representation that need addressing.
• Recruitment from diverse and under-represented voices, particularly in rural areas, should be seen as a pre-requisite to successful engagement projects, rather than an add on. 
• Engagement projects and reports have seemed to focus on the interaction with communities on food issues, while there is less evidence of similar work done in climate or land use spaces.

What now?

The evidence from last year shows that community engagement works, but it has to be properly resourced, inclusive and embedded in how policy is designed, not just in the way it’s communicated. If you’re involved in community engagement work for food systems change we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch.