Access and Participation for everyone.
Participation in food culture, from production to consumption, regardless of immigration status, class, race, age, ability, sex, gender, wealth, beliefs or lived experiences. We actively fight discrimination and regularly investigate our own biases.
Solidarity not charity.
Charity addresses symptoms of systemic issues, mutual aid builds new social relations. We're open to many different kinds of group, growing-projects, social eating etc but not open to capitalist, profit driven or traditional charitable models.
For and by the community.
We believe in community, not philanthropy. We welcome branches that are run by the same community that eats. We support branches to transition to a user-led model.
Democratic.
We are a democratic organisation where members can co-create the strategy and direction of the organisation.
Sustainable.
We believe in food with a low environmental footprint but big health impact. We aim for low waste, locally sourced, nutritious and of course tasty food. Social cooking and eating are important to us, sharing our love of food builds community and fosters connections.
Collaborative not competitive.
NFS seeks to collaborate with other organisations as our branches collaborate with one another.
Pro-pudding.
Healthy eating isn’t just about eating your greens. Healthy eating means eating food you enjoy, eaten in company, in comfort, knowing that you can eat again when you are hungry.
Trial and error.
We are flexible, creative and responsive to the changing needs of the communities we operate in. We are not afraid to take a risk, try new things and cultivate individuals to lead new initiatives. We do not always have to be right but seek to learn and develop in all we do. We are constantly evolving.
