A Pan-European movement uniting civil society and funders in the transition to healthy, just & sustainable food environments
Because together our impact is more powerful and inevitable
We bring together stakeholders from different sectors (health, food, climate change, biodiversity, animal welfare, labour rights and just transitions) with a shared belief that the current food system is unsustainable, unhealthy, and unjust.
Started to ponder over the initiative’s concept in 2020, it was in 2021 that over 120 civil society groups and funders co-created a strategic framework, imagining a food future where all people are able to eat healthy, just and sustainable diets with a lot of plant-based and little and nature-friendly animal-based foods.
In this future, foods are produced in ways that regenerate ecosystems, protect animal rights, and support workers.
Overall our first and foremost priority is to decrease the consumption of harmful animal-sourced foods and to promote sustainable plant- and pasture-based foods in Europe through changing food environments.
HFHP aims to be a movement of movements by lifting up and building bridges between campaigns and networks within and between European countries, connecting and catalysing civil society to break down silos, and driving systemic change.
Thus far we have identied the constituencies or honeycombs in the below beehive fully acknowledging that this may change as the movement grows and evolves. Please see How we work for an explanation on the self-organising approach to governance.
You can click on the honeycombs or scroll down to learn Who is Who.
We act to radically transform our food environments so that accessible, just, healthy and sustainable food (with a majority of plant-based foods) is the norm and harmful agriculture ends. We support each other, share learnings, expertise and campaign together. Together our impact is more powerful and inevitable.
The Coordination Team serves all constituencies in HFHP, weaving stronger connections between and across them, amplifying (joint) campaigns, strengthening the learning, and managing the pooled fund.
The Kitchen Table is the main body that sets HFHP strategy and has the final say on funding decisions that have made their way through the movement. It replaces the previous funder steering committee and seeks to dismantle some of the power dynamics that affect funder-driven initiatives - which is why, of its 6 members, 3 are foundations and 3 are civil society organisations. All its members carry equal weight in terms of the decision-making.
The Kitchen Table:
- sets HFHP strategy, including but not limited to grant-making
- reviews and selects grant proposals using a capacity-strengthening approach
- provides ongoing feedback and support throughout project implementation
- embeds HFHP’s Transformational Learning Framework in all its actions
- reviews and approves the annual HFHP budget
- engages in the HFHP community, on- and offline, and contribute to enlarging it
The Kitchen Table meets online every quarter and in person once a year.
A dozen European and international foundations, with interests spanning health, climate, animal welfare, just transitions and biodiversity, have contributed to supporting the movement since we started in 2020. Some funders have both contributed to the pooled fund and devoted staff time to the HFHP co-creation process, others have provided funding. Oak Foundation and ClimateWorks Foundation provided strong support in 2022 to boost the initiative.
In addition to those contributing to the pooled fund, there are foundations whose funding is aligned with the strategic framework. We call them aligned funders, and they include the European Climate Foundation and the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.
Funded members are those that received funding from the pooled fund for projects in line with the strategic framework and categorised by lever. Below you find a profile of all the funded projects, the lead organisation and members involved, a short description of the project, duration and amount, and to which lever they are contributing.
To link and learn, you can filter the projects by lever of change (finance, retail or sub-national action), including cross-cutting levers such as narrative shift, engagement with the health sector or strategic litigation.
In our ecosystem, our levers of change or entry points (Finance, Retail, and Sub-national Action) act as catalysts for thriving Communities of Practice, powered by Mighty Networks.
Lever communities are spaces where food change makers across Europe congregate to push for change in a particular lever area.
Three national coalitions, Eating Better in the UK, Wir Haben Es Satt in Germany and Reseau Action Climat in France plus the European Public Health Alliance (as the former host of the civil society movement building component) have played an important part in steering the HFHP strategy in 2020 and 2021. This is because they are important actors in the food space at national and local level, or in the case of EPHA at the EU-level.
To strengthen their weaving abilities at national level and at the same time build the cross-country power, we created national weaving roles (or equivalent title) with Eating Better, Collectif Nourir in France, and Wir Haben Es Satt in Germany. We have also added the Transitie Coalitie Voedsel in the Netherlands to this group. Started in 2023, the national weavers or equivalent title are strengthening their national coalitions according to the piorities set and for one day a week they will be cross-pollinating their knowledge and experiences with each other and the Coordination Team! In addition they will be moderating one of the three lever Communities of Practice in The Hive, so that they are simultaneously strengthening their geographic and thematic know-how. The weaving collaborative space is coming to life!
HFHP is composed of diverse movement actors, from grassroots organisations to formal NGOs, across Europe.
Once a year HFHP will organise a convening forum or super-circle, around three concepts. Reflect. (Un)learn. Prioritise.
This is the key accountability space in a self-organising governance approach
Due to our desire to stay nimble, HFHP is hosted. First through Climate Works Foundation for the pooled fund and through the European Public Health Alliance for the civil society movement building component.
From April 2023 onwards this is through the Network of European Foundations.