Members in the Spotlight- September
September, 2026
It has been a busy summer for our members across the network. The Compleat Food Group published its ESG Report 2025/26, the third we have worked on with them since their inaugural report, covering resilience, health and the continued integration of sustainability into core business strategy. PepsiCo released its ESG Summary 2025, and Hilton Foods published a blog on ESG metrics and data that is worth your time if you are wrestling with what to measure and how to make the numbers usable. Across all three, the same shift is visible. A report that once catalogued what had been measured is increasingly expected to explain how decisions get made, and good reporting now has to make genuinely complex material accessible to audiences well beyond the sustainability team.
Image credit: Phoebe Davies, Culture Roots Collective
We are also pleased to introduce Culture Roots Collective, a hub building inclusion, representation and opportunity across the sustainable food and farming sector. Through its platform, events, networks and partnerships, the Collective connects individuals and organisations with lived experience, talent and practical resources, and for Global Majority individuals it offers a route into opportunities, connections and the systems that shape our future food landscape. Working with them means more than access to a network. It is a chance to engage with underrepresented voices, strengthen inclusive leadership and understand why justice and diversity belong at the centre of a fairer food system. The Collective is collaborating with the NFU and the British Veterinary Ethnicity and Diversity Society on AgriFuture Forum 2026, in London on Thursday 22 October, bringing together people from agriculture, veterinary practice, food and environmental sectors to share lived experience, academic insight and practical ideas for building more inclusive industries. They would like to hear from members interested in partnership projects, funded initiatives, knowledge-sharing, research, or simply joining them on the day.
Building the knowledge, confidence and practical skills for a healthier, more resilient future is an important part of food system transformation. Hackney School of Food puts this into practice every day. A not-for-profit food education hub in East London, it works with children, their families and the wider community through hands-on cooking and growing education. Its state-of-the-art teaching kitchen, contemporary event space and thriving growing garden are also available to organisations, from away day cooking and garden experiences to meetings, events and masterclasses. It has recently been featured by Foodism Magazine, V&A East and Hackney Council, as well as hosted events with chef Jamie Oliver, musician Loyle Carner and sustainable hospitality and food brands.
Organisations that share Hackney School of Food’s commitment to food education, sustainability and community can also build longer-term partnerships that directly support its work. Every booking and partnership provides vital funding for its work. To enquire about venue hire, team experiences or partnerships, please email Mallika Basu, Commercial and Marketing Lead at mallika@hackneyschooloffood.com, or visit www.hackneyschooloffood.com.
Farming and food businesses face growing demands for compliance, traceability, sustainability and reporting, all while managing tight margins, increasing data volumes and limited time. To help the sector respond, Chris Manley of Traction Consulting, Food Systems Accelerator coach and member of the Farmer-led Working group has joined Scott Quilter of Techosaurus and Amy Hughes of EmpowerAg to launch Agri-AI.
Designed for farmers, growers, food producers and businesses across the agricultural supply chain, Agri-AI offers practical support to reduce administration, simplify reporting and turn existing data into useful insight. Its sessions will focus on real industry needs. To learn more, register your interest: https://agri-ai.uk/
The Food Foundation published its Food Prices Tracker for August 2026, and we have now opened the second phase of our joint consultation with them on the Good Food Bill. The headline findings from the first round sit alongside the new survey, Industry Views on Regulation for Healthy and Sustainable Diets, and the more perspectives we gather from across the sector, the more useful the research becomes.
Got news of your own to share next month? Get in touch with the Future Food Movement team, we'd love to feature it.