Introduction

The council and the Community Planning Partnership are seeking a Community Food partner who will establish a Food Partnership Network.  This network will incorporate all aspects of good food policy pillars, including health and wellbeing; growing; community eating; affordable food; food insecurity; food dignity; whole systems working; education; and capacity building within the community food sector. 

Closing date for applications is Monday 15 September 2025, 11.59pm

Funding decision will be made by South Lanarkshire Council’s Community and Enterprise Resource Committee on 7 October 2025

All applicants must provide

• A copy of your organisation’s governing document.
• A copy of the most recent independently examined accounts
• A copy of the signed conditions of grant form (see terms and conditions).

Please use the questions on the application form as a guide. We require a completed funding form but also welcome all creative ways to tell us about how you plan to deliver your project.

Examples of this are: video, pictures, arts, presentations.

For further queries or if you are unable to complete an online application please contact: dana.brady@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

Guidance notes and criteria

The funding will establish a South Lanarkshire Community Food Partnership; a group run for and by third and community sector organisations who will come together with a shared objective – to be part of creating a fairer, healthier, more sustainable, and resilient food system in South Lanarkshire.

A third sector organisation will bring together a network that will develop a co-ordinated local approach to food related work in communities across South Lanarkshire, and to identify areas for development, and identify possible funding sources for new activities. This network will be the vehicle for communities to participate in the development of the Good Food Nation plan as it develops.

The co-ordinating organisation will:

• Build and maintain relationships with community food partners and with new community and third sector stakeholders across South Lanarkshire to participate in the partnership.
• Develop and deliver effective communications for the community food partnership and its agreed vision, using a wide range of communication media.
• Create a sustainable development plan for the continuation of South Lanarkshire’s Community Food Partnership.
• Conduct community engagement and community consultation relating to the development of the Good Food Nation plan across South Lanarkshire’s communities and third sector.
• Produce and share the network’s comprehensive engagement report to inform the Good Food Nation plan with community and third sector views.
• Organisation of the food partnership membership list and at least four meetings and one event held during the funding period.
• Collect data about existing, local food-related work already underway to ensure up-to-date information about current community food activities and share in the engagement report and the network’s sustainable development plan.

Support

The Local Food Partnership will be supported by the South Lanarkshire Council Tackling Poverty and Inequalities Officer, the Community Planning Partnership, and the Sustainable Food Places Network (SFP).

South Lanarkshire Council will commit to working with the food partnership to develop a strategic approach to food policy development with the community food sector.

Budget

£50,000 has been allocated for the creation and initial development of a local food partnership. Scoring of applications will consider ongoing funding approaches for longer term sustainability of the network. This funding is non-recurring.

Finding ongoing funding beyond the start-up funding will be the responsibility of the host organisation.

The network will be funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.  As such, funds must be spent by 31 March 2026 and all financial reporting and network participation evidence completed by 30 April 2026.  However, the sustainable development plan and evaluation report timescales can be negotiated. The use of the funds can be backdated to 1 April 2025 if your organisation has already carried out activities that would inform your application or the new network. Please contact Dana Brady prior to application to discuss payment for any work carried out prior to award, to agree eligibility. Requests for any backdated payments should be clearly stated in the application and explained.

Monitoring information for the UK Shared Prosperity fund requires evidence of outputs and of spend.  This will include receipts and evidence of salary payments, and the numbers of participants in the network.

The required outcomes and outputs from this activity are as follows:-

Outcomes:

1. A new Community Food Partnership network is created.
2. Improved engagement numbers – outcome indicator % of improvement in organisations engaging in the network.

Outputs

1. Number of organisations attending
2. Communications metrics
3. Four network meetings held.
4. One network event held.
5. Network Sustainable Development Plan
6. Network Engagement Report