CLES Open Hour - June 2025
On the 16th of June, the ESES Communities Team joined the monthly, free CLES Open Hour—a relaxed, open space for people across the UK working in local economic development to:
- Connect with like-minded peers
- Hear the latest from Sarah, Tom and the CLES team
- Make sense of policy changes and emerging ideas
- Create space to think, reflect and recharge
Every month, they review an emerging topic; this month, Julian Boys, CLES's Associate Director for Economic Strategy, shared some of the findings from work CLES recently concluded in Sheffield, developing a roadmap for the local public sector to support a sustainable, healthy and local food economy in the city.
Topics covered were:
- Local food resilience – how can we strengthen local supply chains and reduce reliance on global industrial systems?
- Food justice – what ensures fair access to healthy, affordable food for all communities?
- Role of policy – how can councils and other anchor institutions shape and support sustainable food systems?
- Measuring change – what does success look like, and how do we track it?
Our takeaways from the session:
- The work at CLES aims to create economies that work for people, planet and place.
- While conducting this research, they looked at anchor institutions and where they spent their money on food. They found that 14m (two-thirds) was being spent with large national suppliers.
What is an anchor institution? | CLES
- They found that universities had more flexibility around their choice of suppliers, but the NHS did not.
- One need they identified was helping procurement and catering managers within anchor institutions understand their local suppliers. An outcome detailed in the report is creating a directory and interactive map.
- Small suppliers need an opportunity to develop relationships with public sector buyers.
- See an example from ‘Good Food Oxfordshire’ to build local supply networks.
Oxfordshire's Sustainable Food Network | Good Food Oxfordshire
Discussion: There must be a commitment to buying local food, which is generally more expensive. Therefore, the social value will have to be argued, demonstrating the bigger picture for the area: jobs, planet, etc.
If you have buying power, you can influence the market. Universities can use their power to effect change.
Noted comments:
- There’s never a dialogue; there needs to be more conversations between the buyers and producers. Improve communication.
- What grows locally? Design procurement based on that.
- Create a map of suppliers and bring people into the conversation.
- Getting the right people around the table. Is that a national conversation? National push from the government.
Question: How can we in the co-operative movement exercise solidarity with co-operative food producers? How should the supply chain work from farm to kitchen table within the solidarity economy?
- There is a massive supply barrier because specifications have often not been created in partnership with suppliers, tend to be too rigid/unrealistic, and are not cost-effective for the grower.
*Specifications: the size specifications, etc. Often, a tiny % of the total crop
Suggested links:
Gather North Lancs Food Hub - FoodFutures
Local Food Directory - FoodFutures
Co-operative wholesale society - Wikipedia
https://hartlepoolfoodpartnership.co.uk/local-food-procurement-maps/