Sheffield

Northern cluster /

I’m hearing that what we need is land, training, investment…Changing the culture of the council, getting officers on side, these are some of the things we can do. We’re passionate about it, and up for it.

Alison Teal, Sheffield Council lead on Sustainable neighbourhoods, wellbeing, public health, allotments’. Fringe Farming event July 2021.

There are currently 99 acres of land in South Yorkshire under ‘nature friendly’ food cultivation. Though this sounds, and is, a small area in relation to demand for healthy food in the city, these enterprises sustain 100 livelihoods and collectively have an £8m annual turnover. It is important to note that more than half of this area is in community gardens of an acre or less.

Exciting and signifiant changes are happening in Sheffield as communication and collaboration between the City Council, City Region Council and the city’s food growers takes positive strides forward in 2021.

The vision, dynamism and co-working and of, in particular, Gareth Roberts (ShefFood and Regather) and Fran Halsall (ShefFood urban agriculture coordinator) is starting to shift Sheffield into the forefront of the city food system movement.

This came together in the launch event of the UK Fringe Farming project in Sheffield in July. See the full event recording here.

Watch the moving short film The Moss Valley Story  and read ShefFood’s Fringe Farming blog.

These are the key presentations from that event that together give an overview of this new chapter of Sheffield’s food system work.

There is already a fantastic network of local food producers serving the city. You can see some of them here.