Procurement Working Group
Where local businesses and institutions choose to spend their money can have a big impact on the ability of local food producers to thrive.
Procurement is the process of buying goods and services. It can be an extremely powerful tool for increasing the environmental and social sustainability of food supply, and forsupporting a resilient local food economy.
The Food Economy and Procurement working group looks to embed sustainable procurement practices within local businesses and institutions, including the council, hospitals, schools and universities.
This group currently meets every two months
This group’s two year priorities:
Developing a cross-sector procurement forum
- Seek funding for procurement coordination time to work with local cross-sector procurement colleagues.
- Work with the local public procurers in the district to explore whether the role of the food hub could be useful in aggregating produce from a range of producers and/or procuring more agroecological locally produced food.
- Work with the Morecambe Bay Anchor procurement group to develop a strategic action plan and approach for increasing local agroecologically produced food.
- Be part of the Northern Real Farming Conference procurement group, linking approaches across the North of England and learning/sharing about local procurement approaches.
Ongoing activities
- Develop case studies that highlight good practice around regenerative food procurement – feeding into THRIVE magazine, food columns, blogs, videos and an annual campaign.
- Research to better understand the barriers and opportunities for local and sustainable food procurement in local institutions. Read the Procuring Food for the Future report.
