Community Food Initiatives in the Highlands
Discover resources and support for new and existing community food projects across the Highlands.
Community Food is central to our mission at the Highland Good Food Partnership. This work includes supporting local projects that bring people together—initiatives like community gardens, food banks, markets, and allotments. We assist groups with essential steps such as securing land, accessing funding, and setting up effective governance. Interested in joining our Community Food group or learning more? Email us at hello@highlandgoodfood.scot!
Community Food Growing
Our team is developing a Highlands-wide map of community growing projects to enhance collaboration, share knowledge, and address common challenges. This map will strengthen the network of community food initiatives and encourage new groups to get started. Until it’s ready, you can explore the “Community Growing Initiative” layer on the Highland Food Activity map to see what’s already underway.
Here are some resources below:
- Greener Scotland has some great suggestions on seasonal fruit and veg.
- Growing our Future, a draft document from the Highland Council.
- Plan to grow food, from the Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society
- Social Farms and Gardens Community Growing resource pack
Food waste and the circular economy
At Highland Good Food we are a member of Circular Communities Scotland. In a circular economy we keep products in economic use for as long as possible. If a product cannot be reused, then the component materials which are also valuable resources are recycled. One of the important aspects when it comes to food is seeing food waste as resource that can be reused as compost.
We have partnered up with 8 organisations in Highland to form the Highland Community Waste Partnership where, starting spring 2022, we will be delivering on food waste reduction in a move towards more sustainable consumption, consistent with a Net Zero future. This project is being coordinated by Keep Scotland Beautiful and funded by the National Lottery.
- If you feel like you’d like get involved in circular economies and food waste in Highland, email hello@highlandgoodfood.scot and we will let you know about the project group, how often they meet and what to expect.
Emergency food provision
For communities who want to start up a community fridge, here is MOO Food’s booklet on how to do it. You can go to our Highland Food Activity map and check out the “Food Banks” and “Community Fridges and Larders” layers to see which projects are working on emergency food provision.
The Highland Good Food Partnership is a member of the Scottish Food Coalition who are campaigning for a Good Food Nation Bill and advocating for people’s Right to Food. The belief is that if food plans, strategies and legislation at governmental and local authority level were framed around people’s right to access good, healthy, affordable food, then this would facilitate the structural changes required to effectively address food poverty and food justice. Currently food banks are necessary to ensure everyone has enough to eat, however this is not a just approach.
