Local Trust and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming partnered to host an online panel discussion, with FFCC Chief Executive, Sue Pritchard, on how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed different strengths and weaknesses within our local food systems, and what needs to happen next so they can become more resilient in the future.

This report summarises the discussion from the event, which was the third in a series looking at how communities have responded to COVID-19 and will renew and increase their resilience following it.

There have been tremendous shocks to our food system over the last few months, showing both how fragile it is but also how responsive local communities can be in moments of crisis. In Big Local areas across the country, people came together to source and deliver food to the most vulnerable residents, with local knowledge proving invaluable. To explore this further, Local Trust invited Sustain to guest-host a discussion on how we can build more resilience into our local and national food systems, in ways that ensure that everyone has access to healthy, delicious and sustainable food.