++44 (0)20 7639 9774
bohnandviljoen
2020-Dec-07 : Gold Award success for Brighton & Hove
Congratulations!
On 30th November 2020, national awards body Sustainable Food Places announced that Brighton & Hove has become the first in the UK to win a Gold Sustainable Food Place Award. ‘The award recognises the city’s outstanding achievements on a range of key food issues and most recently on tackling food poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic’, says the Brighton&Hove Food Partnership who coordinated the city’s bid under the oversight of the Brighton & Hove Food Strategy Expert Panel.

André and Katrin are proud to have been collaborating with Brighton&Hove Food Partnership and the council since around 2008 on Brighton-based food projects.
bhfp-goldfoodplacesbid2020-p0-kl2mb-05416.jpg
Brighton & Hove’s bid was submitted after a 5-year process involving multiple local stakeholders. (image: BHFP www 2020)
‘Being awarded Gold comprised the efforts of businesses, community and voluntary groups, local authority departments and individuals right across the city. We believe that this collaborative approach is what has lead Brighton & Hove to being a hive of good food work, including being one of the few areas of the UK bucking the trend on childhood obesity, having breastfeeding rates 25% above the national average and having tripled the number of community gardens in the city in the past five years.’

The city had received a Silver Award in 2015 after which it embarked on a 5-year journey to reapply in November 2020. This journey involved the development of a Food Strategy and Action Plan by Brighton&Hove Food Partnership, alongside community consultation and campaigning as well as joint negotiations with the local authority which culminated in their commitment in the Corporate Plan 2020-2023 to support the bid for Brighton & Hove to become a Gold Sustainable Food City.

On Tuesday 1st December, we celebrated the Award in an online event attended by around 60 people including Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty, Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, who concluded his keynote speech by saying ‘I see the Gold Award not as the end of the road but as the beginning’.
For more information on the Gold Award see here.

For information on the Sustainable Food Places see the network's own website.

For Bohn&Viljoen’s contribution to food work in Brighton & Hove see the Practice page on this website.

To keep up to date with the project's development see our blog Productive Urban Landscapes.