About Us
Our Mission
Better Food Traders is a non-profit organisation that exists to support small and medium-sized enterprises who are aligned with our mission: To rebuild our food system and create thriving local food economies that protect nature, climate, farmers and communities.
We are a UK-wide network for traders including shops, bakeries, online sellers, food hubs, wholesalers, markets, market stalls and veg box schemes, who all sell organically-grown produce and do business in a fair, sustainable way.
Since 2025, our network is supported by an affordable membership model with tiers that reflect individual trader turnover. Our core work is also supported through charitable grants, donations and advisory work.
Do get in touch if you would like our help with business training or consultancy re local food systems, enterprise, marketing or tech – hello@betterfoodtraders.org.
What We Do
As the core team behind Better Food Traders, our role is threefold:
- Member building
- Market building
- Movement building
The goal of this strategy is to help enterprises thrive through training and support, contributing to research, campaigns and policy, and connecting people across the UK to grow the better food movement.
We provide sector-specific training, business advice, peer-learning opportunities, online resources and links to to food enterprises who are committed to selling produce that is produced and distributed sustainably, pays fair prices to farmers, and sends money back to local communities.
We also work with local authorities and regional food partnerships, and we campaign for changes that support the sustainable food sector.
We also create coordinated marketing and public-awareness campaigns to spread the message of why we should be buying locally-grown, planet-friendly produce.
The Current Problem
We are causing irreparable harm to our soil, biodiversity and water courses.
IMpact of our Members 2023/24
Over £33,500,000 sales of fruit and veg from UK agroecological and organic farmers
400 climate- and nature-friendly farms supported
200 Better Food Traders and their hundreds of thousands of weekly customers working together to change the food system
CORE TEAM
Better Food Traders is delivered by a team of part-time staff and freelancers (3.6 FTE)
Julia Kirby-Smith
Melissa Ray
Julie Brown
Hattie Hammans
Lois Gallimore
Luke Neve
Nicola Green
Harri Rose
Board
Sarah Williams
Bob Mehew
Tsouni Cooper
Gareth Roberts
Keval Shah
Tom Richardson
Dawn Dublin
Photograph of Dawn Dublin © Louis Little for The Gaia Foundation
Zosia Walczak
Impact Report 2024/25
Impact Report 2023/24
Impact Report 2022/23
How the Better Food Traders came to be
In 1993, Julie Brown and a group of friends set up what was London’s first Community Supported Agriculture scheme. 30 households signed up to buying produce from a long-time organic farm in Buckinghamshire. The box scheme had been launched, but it wasn’t until 3 years later, that the name ‘Growing Communities’ was adopted.
“These were the early days of box schemes,” says Julie, “and it really felt very subversive to be unloading vegetables fresh from the farm at 6am right under the nose of the local Sainsbury’s!”
The Start-up Programme
By 2011 the box scheme (based in Hackney, London) was thriving. Growing Communities had expanded to include a number of urban growing sites, growing salad in the city and training the growers of the future, as well as the first all-organic farmers’ market. At that point, Julie came up with the idea of the Start-up Programme.
Birth of the Better Food Traders
The Start-up Programme helped set up community-led box schemes nationwide. At the same time, there was a significant expansion of local enterprises such as market stalls, shops and other box schemes supporting farmers to grow climate-friendly food. However, these small enterprises were often struggling and isolated. The need for a network became apparent.
“We want to extend our network of community box schemes to include all retail enterprises committed to an alternative ethically-driven food system. We want to support that network and at the same time provide guarantees to customers looking to shop in a different way” – Julie Brown
Better Food Traders and beyond
In January 2020 the Better Food Traders network launched. Supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and partnering with Sustain, the Better Food Traders network aims to harness and focus the collective power of all of those ethical enterprises committed to climate-friendly growing and eating.
