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2022-03-31-accounts

Annual report

Review and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

Company registered number: 02673194 Charity registered number: 1018643

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Foreword

This Annual Report reflects on a year in which the Covid-19 crisis transitioned almost seamlessly into a cost-of-living crisis, as fuel and food prices started to increase due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Such developments served to deepen the many challenges now facing our food and farming system, as well as household food insecurity for millions of people in the UK experiencing financial hardship. This year also saw world leaders meeting in Glasgow in the latest round of international talks at COP-26 on the climate emergency.

Amidst such a perfect storm of developments and pressures, the Sustain team has once again kept up an admirable level of project and campaign work, bringing people together in common cause to help secure a healthy and sustainable food future for all. The work we have undertaken this year to support the well-being of our staff members feels especially important in such challenging times.

It is perhaps unsurprising that our work this year has had a strong focus on national policy and the politics of food and farming. Sustain played a major role in coordinating responses to the National Food Strategy consultation, held several well-attended parliamentary events, and ran our sell-out Annual Conference on the theme of Keeping Food on the Political Plate. We were pleased to welcome speakers from all of the

leading political parties, as well as the Chairs of two key Select Committees – Environment Food and Rural Affairs and International Trade.

We applaud the work of our sister alliance Nourish Scotland in all they have done to win a Good Food Nation Bill; and our sister alliance Food Sense Wales in getting so much traction with the Welsh Assembly. By contrast, progress on food and farming policy in Westminster feels achingly slow, fragmented and full of setbacks. Nevertheless, Sustain’s farming, climate, health, international trade and public affairs teams persisted in their efforts to keep the healthy and sustainable food and farming on the public agenda, at local, national and – at COP-26 – international level.

Sustain’s vibrant projects and campaigns feel like a perfect antidote to pessimism. Sustain continues to cultivate a renaissance in good food culture through community food growing, Real Bread baking, school food standards, sugar reduction initiatives, peri-urban market gardening, and clearing junk food advertising out of our communities. Sustain’s work to promote better food and farming fills me with inspiration and hope. I am sure it does you too. Please do join in!

Professor Mike Rayner Chair of Sustain’s Council of Trustees

Trustees during the financial year covered by this report:

Cobi-Jane Akinrele (elected 18/12/2020) Lucy Bjorck (elected 09/12/2019) Josie Cohen (elected 15/12/2021) David Edwards (elected 18/12/2020) Jyoti Fernandes (elected 18/12/2020) Mollie Gupta (elected 18/12/2020) Dr Kawther Hashem (elected 18/12/2020) Bridget Henderson (re-elected 12/12/2018) Andre Kpodonu (elected 18/12/2020) Katharine Jenner (re-elected 09/12/2019)**

Shefalee Loth (elected 18/12/2020) Jo Lewis (elected 09/12/2019) Raksha Mistry (elected 18/12/2020) Professor Mike Rayner, Chair (re-elected 15/12/2021) Stephanie Slater, Vice Chair (re-elected 15/12/2021) Alison Swan Parente (elected 15/12/2021) Nick Weir (elected 18/12/2020) Victoria Williams, Treasurer (re-elected 23/11/2017) Deirdre (Dee) Woods (elected 09/12/2019)

Note: Those marked with an asterisk () share the trustee role between two people in their organisation as a leadership development opportunity. One in each pair marked with a double asterisk (*) is the nominated Trustee registered with Companies House and the Charity Commission.

Company registered number: 02673194 Charity registered number: 1018643

Registered office: The Green House, 244-254 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9DA Auditors: Goldwins, 75 Maygrove Road, West Hampstead, London NW6 2EG

Bankers: The Co-operative Bank, PO Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester M60 4EP and Triodos Bank, Deanery Road, Bristol, BS1 5AS

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Our year in numbers

Our projects, campaigns, partnerships and policy work contributed to the following over the year April 2021 to March 2022:

340

local authorities attend workshops people discuss government on healthy food food policy at Sustain’s advertising policies annual conference

Over people take part in four-day Food Power Festival

500 farmers 1,000 fewer surveyed on calories bought by each local food Londoner due to junk supply chains food ad restrictions

cities develop Fringe Farming plans

5,000

attend parliamentary events on pesticides, letters to MPs support local food, and food and farming international trade standards in trade

Sustainable Food Places lobby Environment 60 Secretary on food and climate in COP-26

good food jobs pieces of fruit for 1,000 advertised on children secured Roots to Work for new school year platform 200,000

people read a Sustain news item (up 53%)

crowdfunded for “Knead to Know… more” microbakery guide

of CO2 saved by Capital Growth gardens

Find out more about Sustain’s success stories and achievements at: www.sustainweb.org/about/working_together_our_success_stories/

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Good food production

Our vision is a food production system that is based on the principles of agroecology, that is fair for all who participate in it, and which is connected with its local community, through shorter, localised supply chains, and community food growing spaces, all of which cover rural, peri-urban and urban areas.

Our Sustainable Farming Campaign has been very busy this year engaging with Defra’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) teams to push for policies and farm payment schemes that match the ambition for an agroecological UK, achieving good progress on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), agroforestry, organic and other areas. We have generated huge interest and support through delivering numerous workshops and talks at key farming conferences, work with parliamentarians, and surveying 500 farmers in England and Wales to highlight the need for growth in local food supply chains. We also carried out local supply chain mapping work in two counties to help make the case for investment in the localised food systems.

climate, biodiversity, pesticides, farm antibiotics stewardship, animal welfare and food standards, with positive reactions from the Committee on Climate Change, the National Food Strategy, Food Standards Agency, and the Efra and International Trade select committees.

At city level, we have continued to champion fringe farming with partner cities Bristol, Glasgow, London and Sheffield, where local authorities, landowners, planners and food growing practitioners are working together to promote productive market gardening in peri-urban areas. Our Fringe Farming policy report setting out recommendations for local and national action.

UK plans for international trade deals continue to raise concerns about food and farming standards for many in the Sustain alliance. We partnered with Pesticide Action Network UK and Sussex University to highlight concerns about pesticide standards. This included a parliamentary event to promote our reports and briefings, which the Efra select committee chair, and the International Trade select committee chair as speakers, as well as a senior MPs and Defra officials. We are consistently pressing for proper public scrutiny and core standards in trade deals, on issues such as

At community level, our Capital Growth network of over 3,000 community food gardens in London has continued to thrive. We delivered well-attended workshops to improve knowledge and skills to grow food in the city, with a focus on agroecology, biodiversity and climate resilience. London growers helped us to co-produce a handbook on the role of urban food gardens in addressing the climate and nature emergency. Seventy London gardens took part in our Urban Harvest Festival and Good to Grow day of action.

We co-host Conservative 94 community Toxic Trade report published Joint briefing published for COP-26 Environment Network gardens around the with Pesticide Action Network climate talks on Delivering the UK’s roundtable on Future UK take part in Good and Sussex University Nationally Determined Contribution Farming at Conservative to Grow Day 2021 critiques CPTPP deal through farming and land use Party Conference

April June September October November We support Dynamic Discussions on fairer New twilight sessions Feedback collected Extensive work Food Procurement group routes to market held at held at The Royal on 20 workshops continues to engage to help farmers get public Groundswell Regenerative Parks for people with 300 people Defra on Environmental sector food contracts Agriculture Show learning to grow food on food growing Land Management knowledge and skills and agroecology

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The City Region and Sheffield City Council must get behind the Fringe Farming action plan. There are sound health, wellbeing, educational, environmental and economic reasons to support this sustainable and vital industry.”

Councillor Alison Teal , Executive Member for Sustainable Neighbourhoods, Sheffield

The support and network you offer is invaluable to individuals, gardens and organisations in this sector” Capital Growth Community Garden Group member

Proud to have been involved in this initiative led by @UKSustain” Organic Farmers & Growers

Photo: Chrissy Harrison from Keats Farm delivering food growing training with Capital Growth at market garden in Bexley Heath, credit: Fi McAllister

Community food Fringe Farming and growing practitioners Good Food Trade events meet to explore held at Oxford Real agroecology in the Farming Conference urban context

Joint campaigning wins support for organic farming, agroforestry, IPM and farmland biodiversity in Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme

We map local supply 19 London gardens chain infrastructure in recruited to establish two counties, making a new Community the case for investment Garden Group

January

February

March

Forty London Fringe Farming policy report gardens take part in published, setting out our annual Good to recommendations for growth Grow day of action in peri-urban horticulture

Market research We submit evidence and Partner cities draw undertaken to give oral evidence to select up local Fringe understand the views committees, including EFRA Farming action plans of farmers on local enquiry into UK-Australia with our support routes to market trade deal

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Good food economy

We want to see fair supply chains support a flourishing diversity of supply, manufacturing, retail and catering enterprises – at home and overseas – that create good jobs and livelihoods; helping agroecological farmers and sustainable fishers to thrive and making good food the easiest choice.

Sustain has continued to catalyse action to stimulate a good food economy, as well as securing resources to increase our work and influence in this important area over the coming years. We have presented evidence for the benefits of shorter supply chains, working with our alliance to make the case for local food. We also developed two exciting new areas of work: plans to create and support implementation of a local food retail growth strategy; and Bridging the Gap, which will work with food enterprises and communities to make agroecological food affordable to all.

In London, we showcased inspirational ethical food businesses in our Jellied Eel magazine and helped Impact Hub’s Feeding the City programme to advise innovative food start-ups. We also brought together local authorities to provide peer support on promotion of Good Food Retail, going on to advise Southwark Council on engagement of small food enterprises as part of their food strategy.

Our Real Bread Campaign came out of lockdown even stronger, with more followers and more engagement in Real Bread Week and Sourdough September. Following years of mobilising support

for an Honest Crust Act (to improve bread composition, labelling and marketing standards), Defra established a Bread and Flour Technical Working Group to advise on regulatory review. The crowdfunder for our microbakery handbook, Knead to Know… more, raised over £12k. With the School of Artisan Food using this guide in their teaching, we launched Friends in Knead to help subsidise course places for people on low or no income.

Following our huge success in persuading caterers that serve 1 billion meals to buy only demonstrably sustainable fish, our attention shifted to improving supply to meet demand. Our Net Worth report, and parliamentary activities, made the case for Government investment of £400m per year in sustainable fishing to create over 14,000 jobs and generate £2 billion per year in the UK, for the benefit of coastal communities.

Roots to Work, our platform and communications tool to promote good food jobs, continues to grow. This year, we hosted almost 1,000 jobs from around 400 organisations. This has also proved one of our most engaged communities for taking action on Sustain campaigns.

Post-pandemic Welsh language Six London councils report sets out version of The 12 new and diverse share what they did Over 4,300 #SourdoughSeptember what Good Food Real Bread Loaf Real Bread Campaign with our support on tagged Instagram posts from over Enterprises need Mark launched ambassadors announced Good Food Retail 60 countries promote Real Bread June July August September October Scottish Bread Our Net Worth report Joint RSPB-Sustain Social enterprises pitch Our Beyond the Farmgate Championship quantifies the value of initiative ‘The Case for their ideas to Feeding research shows benefits awards recognise sustainable fish buying Local Food’ launched the City panel to farmers of farmerReal Bread bakers to British fishers with Parliamentarians focused supply chains

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Do you want to turn your baking hobby into a microbusiness? Because if you do, you should get this book.”

Dame Prue Leith , author, cook, TV presenter and Sustain patron, in praise of the Real Bread Campaign’s new book ‘Knead to Know… more’

One of our trainees last year went on to an assistant grower job she found on Roots to Work, which we’re all very pleased about!”

Jane, Plotgate Community Farm , commenting on Sustain’s jobs service Roots to Work

Photo: Real Bread Campaign ambassador Eddy Sleiman running a Real Bread Week class, credit: Chris Young

Real Bread Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley wins Slow Food UK ‘Person of the Year’ award

November

‘Knead to Know… more’ guide published promoting baking for a hobby or microbusiness

Good Food for We run Good Food All Londoners Economy consultation for measures London Southwark Council, as part boroughs on action of their wider food strategy to improve food

Meeting hosted of London councils to support Good Food Retail

Real Bread Week supports increase in sales for Real Bread bakers

December

January

February

March

1,000th organisation posts good food job on Roots to Work since its launch in 2017

Friends in Knead scheme subsidies bakery training for people on low or no income

Major new Bridging the Gap programme receives Lottery funding, to make agroecological food affordable for lower-income communities

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Good food for all

We want to see healthy, sustainable food accessible and affordable to all, through a diverse array of outlets, and for it to become unacceptable and expensive to market unhealthy, unethical and unsustainable produce, over the alternative.

Sustain’s major Food Power programme supporting 85 local food poverty alliances over four years, concluded in June 2021. Our evaluation showing that all alliances had valued the support from peer mentors, plus sharing of good practice via events, webinars, toolkits and exchanges. Over 1,000 people took part in our vibrant Food Power Festival in May 2021. In London, we also helped provide enhanced support to local food partnerships in 10 London boroughs to strengthen their responses to household food insecurity.

This year, our Children’s Food Campaign ramped up its public campaign and advocacy work for universal school meals and the #FeedtheFuture campaign. Our Food Poverty team also exposed low uptake of government Healthy Start vouchers for fruit, vegetables, milk and infant formula for low-income families of babies and young children. Our campaign spotlighted major problems with digitisation of the scheme, costly telephone helplines, families losing eligibility and delays in processing, as well as calling for voucher value and eligibility to be increased.

In a milestone win for the Children’s Food Campaign and many others, legislation restricting locationbased and multi-buy price promotions of products

high in fat, salt and/or sugar (HFSS) was passed in December 2021; followed by proposals for legislation to introduce a 9pm watershed and restrictions on online advertising of junk foods.

We also continued to work with local authorities on healthy food advertising policies, following the successful Transport for London policy, and over 70 local authorities signed up to our workshops and new toolkit over the year. With our partner Food Active, we monitored junk food sponsorship deals and advertising at sporting events and tournaments, and polled our Parents’ Jury, to produce the report Kicking Out Junk Food.

We worked extensively on the National Food Strategy. The publication in July 2021 included welcome recommendations for further use of industry levies to promote healthy food, as well as expansion of free school meals, Healthy Start and the National Fruit and Vegetable scheme. We are now developing advocacy on fiscal incentives for healthier food. Working with partners, our Veg Cities campaign, which celebrated its 500th member in June 2021, ensured the Government reinstated the school fruit and vegetable scheme for the new school year.

Queen’s Speech 70 local areas register confirms legislation for workshop on for 9pm watershed on local healthy food junk food advertising advertising policies

Over 200 people register for Children’s Food Campaign webinar on Universal School Meals

Over 300 people participate in National Food Strategy Parents’ Jury backs Sugar and Salt survey on sports Reformulation Tax and sponsorship by doubling of School food brands Fruit and Veg Scheme

May

May

June

July

Our Food Roots Incubator supports 8 boroughs to address household food insecurity

Over 1,000 people take Number of part in Food Power Festival, organisations celebrating interventions on registered with Veg food poverty Cities exceeds 500

Children’s Food Sustain and partners Campaign makes win reinstatement of case for snack tax as primary school Fruit & part of the National Veg Scheme for 2021/22 Food Strategy

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Thank you for all the great resources Sustain creates – they have helped our food poverty work hugely over the last few years!” Anna Gavurin, Caritas Westminster

What an inspiration you all are. There are so many incredible people and organisations working to improve the food in our schools, and as a parent, your work is really appreciated.”

Jo Dawson, Dental Nurse and parent

Photo: Low carbon lunch event in Sheffield organised by Regather, credit: Sustain

The End Child Food Poverty Campaign scoops Third Sector Excellence award for Big Impact

Sustain and Food Active’s ‘Kicking Junk Food Out of Sport’ gains national media coverage

Transport for London’s healthy food advertising policy evaluation shows 1,000 fewer calories in household weekly food purchases

Our public poll shows 2 in 3 adults support free school meals for all primary school children

September

October

November December

February

March

Sustain exposes lack of action on access to Healthy Start for families with no recourse to public funds

Children’s Food Campaign runs policy-maker roundtable on ‘A Time and A Place for Treats’

Healthy Food 150 organisations and Advertising Policy health professionals toolkit launched with sign letter calling for policy webinar for action on Healthy Start local authorities

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Local action

Sustain and Sustainable Food Places held an event at COP 26 in Glasgow to call for action from Local Authorities on food and climate change, credit: Sustainable Food Places

Our Sustainable Food Places (SFP) and London Food Link (LFL) networks bring together people and organisations in 80 places across the UK to build a better food system.

We were delighted by recognition of the value of local food partnerships and the SFP programme in the National Food Strategy. During the 2021 elections period, local election candidates across political parties also pledged their support for food partnerships, including manifesto commitments from London Mayoral candidates.

We worked to ensure local action on food is understood as a key solution for the climate emergency. From low-carbon lunch events around the country to a ‘Food Talks’ special event, our networks geared up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, where we launched Food for the Planet, a new campaign to help local authorities reduce the environmental impact of food through action on food and farming.

Our annual Good Food for All Londoners report and league table showed how London’s councils are applying key policy and practice to improve access to healthy and sustainable food. We also received interest from other areas of the country in replicating this approach.

Demand for our expertise on local issues has grown. We provided detailed support to planning officers in Pennine Lancashire on a healthy food environment; delivered training to public health registrars in the Midlands on food and climate change; and supported Southwark Council in developing a Sustainable Food Strategy. We have also grown our role in guiding local food partnerships to access government funds. Several sustainable food projects were successful in the first round of Levelling Up funding, including the emerging food partnership in Monmouthshire, which received £620k. This year, Sustain also helped to set up the Buckinghamshire Food Partnership, now an independent charity.

Our SFP team finalised a Good Food Movement framework, supporting our networks to diversify individuals and organisations getting involved in food system transformation.

Internationally, Sustain is a network partner in the FoodSHIFT2030 project funded by EU Horizon 2020. Sustain’s role is to help participants share knowledge and experience relevant to sustainable food systems and multi-actor partnerships. Average attendance is around 150-200 people from many countries, with some reaching 400 participants. Sustain has also supported recruitment of a further 33 city-based or city region food partnerships to join the network.

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Local action:

Key moments

Co-operative Party becomes first national party to back a food Q1 partnership in every local area

Local election candidates pledge food partnership support in Hull, Plymouth, Knowsley, Shropshire and North Tyneside

Vote Good Food campaign wins commitments in London Mayoral candidate manifestos

Buckinghamshire Food Partnership spins off from Sustain as an Q2 independent charity

SFP Day of Climate Action: Places organise climatefriendly lunch events involving councillors, food businesses and community groups

60 Sustainable Food Places sign open letter to Environment Secretary on food and climate in COP-26

National Food Strategy references SFP and calls for a food plan in every local area

Q3 Food for the Planet campaign launched at COP26, coordinating action by local councils

30 UK places sign the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration for COP-26

28 out of 33 London boroughs show progress in Q4 our Good Food for All Londoners league table

‘Planning for Healthy Food Environments’ toolkit published

National Food Strategy, page 262

Photo credit: Glasgow Food Policy Partnership

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Climate and nature emergency

How and what we farm, fish, eat and dispose of are some of the biggest contributors to dangerous climate change and precipitous loss of nature. Sustain has joined others in declaring a climate and nature emergency and our commitment to a fair and just transition. This approach now drives our strategy, priorities and sense of urgency, agency and common purpose.

The food system currently uses up the UK’s entire annual carbon budget. To have any hope of tackling the climate and nature emergency, we must transform how food is grown and transported, and what we eat. Sustain is demanding and supporting solutions to the climate emergency that improve our dietary health, tackle inequality, and help restore nature.

Public sector food procurement was a key focus for our campaign activities in 2021, as a key way that public policy and money could support climate- and nature-friendly food, at national and local level. In 2020, the Efra select committee launched an inquiry into public sector catering, with Sustain called to give oral evidence. The inquiry’s findings, published in April 2021, echoed many of Sustain and our members’ calls, including an overhaul of buying rules to reflect the climate emergency, improved monitoring and enforcement, and the adoption of new ‘dynamic procurement’ systems that can benefit smaller and agroecological food farmers and growers.

The Independent National Food Strategy, launched in July 2021, agreed with the Efra select committee, and recommended new and strengthened food standards. The government responded by launching a review of public sector food, with public consultation. Sustain set up the Public Food Task Force, with members including WWF, Eating Better, RSPB, Compassion in World Farming and the Soil Association, to advocate for the adoption of the recommendations of the National Food Strategy and Efra select committee. As part of this, we launched the ‘Back British Farmers’ campaign and e-action in autumn 2021, calling for mandatory standards that support farmers and the environment. Hundreds of people wrote to their MP, several responded, and questions on the topic were asked in Parliament.

In November 2021, world leaders gathered in Glasgow for the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26). We were instrumental in getting several cities, including the Mayor of London, to sign up to the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration. Partnering with Sustainable Food Places, Sustain ran an event on Cities Day, inviting local councils and other sub-national actors to progress ‘from

declaration to action’ emphasising food as a key way to cut climate emissions and improve health. During COP26, Sustain wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, co-signed by 50 alliance members, calling for more action on food and climate change.

----- Start of picture text -----
In September 2021 we launched
Sustain’s major new Food for the Planet
campaign. This is supporting local
councils and food partnerships to cut
the climate footprints of food locally.
The campaign includes the interactive
Every Mouthful Counts toolkit, which
allows councils publicly to benchmark
actions they take to cut food-related
climate emissions. During 2021-22,
18 places registered on the toolkit,
publishing their progress.
----- End of picture text -----

Abi Mordin, Glasgow Community Food Network , contributing to a Sustain blog

Councillor Alex Collis, Executive Councillor for Open Spaces, Sustainable Food and Community Wellbeing, Cambridge City Council

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Parliament and public affairs

We worked extensively this year to coordinate responses to, and inform the development of, the National Food Strategy. We convened a thirdsector working group and launched an online hub to corral Sustain alliance responses. We also hosted platforms for partners and members and made it the theme of our Annual Conference, which attracted 340 attendees. The event helped us rally the alliance behind National Food Strategy priorities, including dynamic food procurement and the need for mandatory business reporting and a Food Bill; the latter winning support from senior parliamentarians.

Sustain ran three impactful parliamentary events on matters of strategic importance to the alliance, in partnership with members and generating crossparty interest. These were attended by over 100 people, including over 30 parliamentarians. The events addressed pesticide standards in trade deals, in our Toxic Trade partnership initiative working with Pesticide Action Network UK; launch of The Case for Local Food report working with RSPB; and our Levelling Up food and farming event, making the case for investment in local infrastructure to help farmers and food enterprises to thrive. Speakers included Efra Committee Chair Neil Parish MP; International Trade Committee Chair Angus MacNeil MP; Shadow Secretary of State for food and farming Luke Pollard MP; Food and Farming Shadow Minister, Daniel Zeichner MP; and participants included a range of backbench MPs, civil servants, and Peers.

International Agreements Committee, Climate Change Committee and the National Food Strategy. The potential impact on pesticide standards and antibiotic stewardship, which we lobbied consistently on, were picked up as key issues by parliamentarians. We were called to give evidence at the EFRA Committee and spoke at All Party Parliamentary Groups on trade, food and health.

We worked closely with senior and influential MPs in government and the opposition, who tabled multiple Parliamentary Questions (PQs) for us, and helped us secure a roundtable for our members with Farming Minister Victoria Prentis, who committed to an organic standard in ELMs as a result. We also generated over 20 PQs to the Department of Health regarding their botched Healthy Start voucher digitisation process which left thousands of low-income families without their entitlement. Our sustained pressure, helped with national and regional media, resulted in a commitment to backdate vouchers, helping more families with babies and young children to eat well.

Working in coalition with fellow NGOs, chefs, activists and well-known farmers like Jimmy Doherty and Joe Stanley, we led a parliamentary and media push on food standards and trade. Across the coalition, more than 2 million people signed petitions on the issue. While the government has largely ignored these concerns, the advocacy has continued and has been picked up by the EFRA Committee, ITC Committee,

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Diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice

Sustain staff members, alliance members and many other people in the food and farming system have a profound commitment to promoting equity and justice, meaning we want to promote diversity and inclusion across a wide range of characteristics. As part of this we are working towards being explicitly anti-racist and consciously working to remove oppressive and excluding attitudes and practices. We recognise there are entrenched and structural causes of inequity and so want to play a part in tackling these, and to be allies to people and organisations leading the way. In particular, we recognise the extent and depth of racial inequity and racial injustice in the food system and want to do what we can to help address this.

Sustain has made a commitment to publishing an annual report on our progress on diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice. We include a brief summary here in our Annual Report, but more detailed information is available here: www. sustainweb.org/about/diversity-equality-inclusion/

and sexuality, as well as those with long-term health conditions or disabilities.

Sustain’s Chief Executive is personally responsible and accountable for pursuing the DEI and racial justice agenda within Sustain, reporting to the Council of Trustees and alliance members.

Every Sustain Council meeting I attend is like a masterclass in governance. This is building my understanding, my capacity as a potential future charity leader. I don’t think I would have got into board-level matters for quite a while if it hadn’t been for the roleshare opportunity”

Sustain Trustee elected to a role-share for cultivating new talent and leadership in 2020, now a full Trustee in their own right

Good governance and senior leadership

Sustain’s Council of Trustees (19 people filling 15 trustee places; some as role shares for leadership development), either continuing in post or elected at the December 2020 AGM, are: two-thirds women; one third Black people and people of colour, as well as representation from people of Jewish, Muslim, Christian and non-theist heritage, and people with diverse identities related to gender

Recruitment for diversity

In common with many third-sector organisations working on health and environment, Sustain’s staff team is majority White British, majority female, and has more work to do to improve our inclusivity for people across a broader range of characteristics. We want to recruit for diversity, and to help our movement take positive action to welcome and employ more people from diverse backgrounds.

Sustain has started to thoroughly overhaul our approach to recruitment this year, with a special focus on recruiting for diversity, including how we write job descriptions, advertise, run selection processes, interview and induct and provide ongoing support for new members of staff. We have successfully piloted our new Ethnicity Confident scheme, offering guaranteed interviews to people of diverse ethnic heritages, if they meet essential criteria and have told us that they wish to be considered in this way. We will now roll out Ethnicity Confident to all of our recruitment and promote this approach to our wider movement.

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Sustain also committed to participate in The RACE Report, and to encourage the environment-focused members of our alliance to join in. The four founding partners of The RACE Report are Hindu Climate Action, Nature Youth Connection and Education, South Asians for Sustainability and is coordinated by Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK), a Sustain alliance member.

Project and campaign leadership

We have integrated reflection and training on diversity issues into our staff training programme (see separate section on Learning and Skills). We have also started to undertake ‘deep dives’ with individual thematic project and campaign coordinators to look at the specific ways in which we can address diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice in their own work. We began with our Real Bread Campaign and Capital Growth community food growing network, which are among our most public-facing activities. The range and depth of actions they have taken as a result are included in our first annual diversity progress report, published in December 2021 (access via link above). We are now developing ‘deep dives’ with our Children’s Food Campaign and parliamentary and public affairs team.

Last year, we updated our funding policy to embed diversity into the way we design programmes and, where we act as a partner or funder, to ensure that diversity and anti-racism approaches and requirements are built in. This year, for example, diversity was part of key criteria for our grant programmes run as part of the Sustainable Food Places network and Food for the Planet campaign.

Diversity style guide

During 2021, Sustain published our Diversity Style Guide (download here: www.sustainweb.org/ news/aug21-sustaindiversity-styleguide/). It sets out how Sustain writes about and portrays diversity, including words and phrases that we use and

portray diversity; and how we will provide platforms for people from diverse backgrounds to be seen and heard. The guide was welcomed by project and campaign staff and by alliance members.

We recognise that communications play a big role in influencing people’s beliefs and attitudes. Our communications should portray diversity as a normal and positive characteristic of the food and farming system. We should help people feel embraced, welcome and included. Our overall purpose is to ensure that in Sustain’s approach to communications, we support, celebrate and promote diversity in food, farming and fishing, and in local and national approaches to building the movement for change.

Member of the Sustain alliance, participant in the Anti-Oppressive Practice learning programme run by Feedback (in which several Sustain staff also participated)

Respecting expertise

Sustain allocated a diversity budget from our core funds to overcome barriers to change and pay for input from respected expertise. Over the year, this has enabled actions such as:

avoid, and how we describe people with a range of personal, ethnic and cultural characteristics. It also covers the sorts of films and imagery we choose to

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Supporter development

Sustain’s Organisation Development Plan sets out our aim of increasing our number of organisational and individual supporters and the quality of engagement with them.

other sources of information, including event signup information (via the event management platform Eventbrite), all undertaken with due respect to consent and data protection regulations (GDPR).

Sustain’s most important supporters are our alliance members and members of the specialist networks we engage with, such as Sustainable Food Places. One of our key Development Plan aims is to encourage higher levels of engagement with our supporters. This year, we ran an audit on our members’ engagement with our work to help us identify stronger and weaker areas of interaction, and which members appear to be more or less engaged. This is helping us to prioritise our efforts. Some key findings of his review were that half of our alliance members are part of one or more of our expert working parties; half had downloaded at least one Sustain publication over the past year; and over half had signed a joint letter on a campaign theme over the last year. Over half attended the Sustain annual conference; over half had posted a job on our Roots to Work good food jobs platform; with over 70% receiving one or more of our e-newsletters (with all members receiving our monthly membership newsletter Digest). All of these findings are positive and encouraging, and also helped us to identify gaps. We have taken action to send personal invitations to some members to get involved in specialist work; and to arrange meetings with others to refresh priorities. The one area where alliance members did not appear to be engaging so much was in participating in e-actions (e.g. emails to government) and we will investigate the reasons further, and any changes we may need to make.

We have also started to explore how to work in more depth with some of our most engaged supporters working across the country, a group we have called “local changemakers”. As this group is diverse in its interests and ability to support our work and the aims of the Sustain alliance, we are now exploring what opportunities there are to provide some systematic support or skills development to help them to be champions for the cause of better food and farming.

All roads lead to Sustain when it comes to food and farming”

Christopher Yap, Research Fellow, Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London

Sustain also has individual supporters – traditionally associated with our thematic projects and campaigns, but increasingly interested in our work across the food and farming system. We have this year focused on building and consolidating our mailing lists and treating Sustain more as a ‘brand’ in its own right. In addition to a wide range of thematic, project and campaign-based newsletters, we have now developed a general Sustain supporters’ newsletter, and prioritised its profile across our platforms. We already have over 1,500 individuals signed up to this in its first months of operation. We have also improved our processes and systems linked to our supporter base to increase numbers and ensure up-to-date contacts, alongside actions to ensure we have a better picture of our engagement with supporters, such as synchronising our supporter data with

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Building our communications and reach

Sustain’s email list grew by 8,600 sign-ups this year. We received over a quarter of a million page views on our core website Sustainweb.org, with read times up 6% compared on the same period last year, which is an encouraging sign that people are engaging with our material online more than ever. Traffic to our Roots to Work good food jobs platform was also up by 140% compared to last year.

combined mailing list across projects stands at well over 80,000 people, up 7% from last year.

We recognise the vital role of digital communications and graphical representations in underpinning our campaign work and impact. A highlight this year is our data visualisation tool allowing Sustain to display data on an interactive map. Our first mapping shows the amount of money that each electoral constituency is missing out on through poor promotion and uptake of Healthy Start vouchers. This has enabled our Food Poverty team and Children’s Food Campaign to make the case with local authorities, councillors, MPs and government ministers for greater support for a scheme that puts money for healthy food into the pockets of low-income families with babies and young children.

The footprint of Sustain’s website and multiple micro-sites has continued to be sizeable, with over 1.25 million page views this year. We took the time to undertake a review of the quality and relevance of content to what people are looking for, which is often highly relevant, but can be variable. Following the review, we removed close to 500 pages of outdated content to improve the quality of visitor experience. We also introduced a new content editor and publishing system to help our project and campaign teams produce the best possible content and reduce dependency on IT and communications staff. This has liberated our expert project coordinators to be able to publish relevant content; and for our campaigners and public affairs staff to be nimble and responsive during important media moments.

We also updated our Good Food for All Londoners interactive map, greatly improving the ability of people to see how well their borough is doing on key food policies and services; and our exciting new Food for the Planet platform, which captures data and calculates carbon savings from local authorities, food partnerships and businesses across the country taking action on food, farming and climate change.

These changes, backed with a new image management system, have pushed our online content up a notch and we hope this will further boost the reputation and reach of Sustain online. We have also introduced functionality to better understand the behaviour of visitors so we can attract a greater number of visitors to join Sustain’s supporter database. Currently our

To underpin our improved communications, we set up an account with press and PR tool Vuelio. This gives us access to comprehensive database of parliamentary and media contacts, to help our projects and campaigns with their communications and influencing work. We have created press release templates and our campaigners will be building up their new lists of media contacts to share their news and quotes with via the email distribution service on the platform.

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Who we work with

As an alliance, Sustain is as strong as its membership. Alliance membership is open to national organisations that do not distribute profits to private shareholders and which operate in the public or their members’ interest. The organisations must be wholly or partly interested in food or farming issues and support the general aims and work of the alliance.

*Those marked with a star were welcomed this year as members of Sustain – agreed by Sustain’s Council, with ratification by Sustain’s membership either confirmed or pending

Sustain alliance members

Action on Salt / Action on Sugar Alexandra Rose Charity Aquaculture Stewardship Council Association of Public Analysts Baby Milk Action Behaviour Change Beyond GM

Bio-Dynamic Agricultural College Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Association British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry

British Dietetic Association

Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)

Caroline Walker Trust

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR)

Centre for Food Policy

Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention

Chartered Institute of Environmental Health City to Sea CIC

Commonwork Trust

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Network Compassion in World Farming Diabetes UK*

Dung Beetles for Farmers* E.coli 0157

Eating Better Faculty of Public Health Fairtrade Foundation Family Farmers’ Association FareShare Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group SW*

Farms not Factories Feedback First Steps Nutrition Trust Food Foundation Food Matters

Food Systems and Policy Group, University of Hertfordshire

FoodCycle

Forum for the Future Friends of the Earth Gaia Foundation Garden Organic Global Justice Now GM Freeze

Growing Communities (and Better Food Traders) Health Education Trust Hubbub

Hyperactive Children’s Support Group Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Keep Britain Tidy Magic Breakfast Marine Conservation Society National Federation of Women’s Institutes

National Trust Nature Friendly Farming Network* Open Food Network UK Oral Health Foundation Organic Farmers & Growers Organic Research Centre - Elm Farm Organic Trade Board Pasture-fed Livestock Association People Need Nature

Permaculture Association Pesticide Action Network UK Plantlife

Rare Breeds Survival Trust

Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, Chefs Adopt a School Trust

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) (covers RSPCA Assured)

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) School Food Matters School of Artisan Food Shared Assets Slow Food in the UK Social Farms and Gardens

Soil Association

Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) Sustainable Food Trust Sustainable Soils Alliance The Country Trust The Kindling Trust The Landworkers’ Alliance The Orchard Project The Real Farming Trust Think Through Nutrition This Is Rubbish Transform Trade Unchecked Unison – the public service union Unite the union – rural and agricultural sector

Vegetarian Society Women’s Environmental Network World Cancer Research Fund Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)

Sustain alliance observers

Agricultural Christian Fellowship Allergy Alliance

Child Poverty Action Group Community Food and Health (Scotland) Food Ethics Council GMB (Britain’s General Union) Green Alliance Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Nourish Scotland Obesity Health Alliance* Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Which? Wildlife and Countryside Link WWF - Scotland WWF - UK

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Sustain works closely with, for example: colleague alliances and initiatives working on cross-cutting food, farming, fishing, environmental and social policy – including: the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics; Eating Better Alliance; Food Research Collaboration; Green Alliance; Food, Farming and Countryside Commission; Green Care Coalition; Obesity Health Alliance; Sustainable Soils Alliance; Trade Justice Movement; and Wildlife and Countryside Link. Our connections and work with such organisations is described in more detail here: www.sustainweb.org/about/sister-alliances-wework-with/.

Across the UK Nations, we work with sister organisations: Food Sense Wales; Nourish Scotland; and Nourish Northern Ireland. We also work with over 80 UK towns, cities and regions and their Sustainable Food Place partnerships and/or food poverty alliances; the London Food Board; and our newsletters have over 80,000 sign-ups, with tens of thousands more followers via social media.

Sustain coordinates the Food Learning Forum, working with food-sector organisations in receipt of Lottery funds, to tackle issues of common concern. Further, we work with 7 municipalities, 7 NGOs and 7 research institutes in 12 European countries, with Sustain playing the communications and learning role in a Europe-wide programme called FoodShift2030 to promote healthy and sustainable food systems. Another 33 city regions and food partnerships have joined FoodShift2030 this year.

Interested in becoming a Sustain member?

If your organisation is interested in becoming a Sustain alliance member or observer, download an application form at: www.sustainweb.org/ membership or email the Sustain team on sustain@ sustainweb.org to speak to Chief Executive Kath Dalmeny or Deputy Chief Executive Ben Reynolds for a conversation about how to get involved. When you submit an application, this is reviewed by the Sustain team and we may ask you for further information or clarification; we will make an initial assessment, ask you any questions necessary for clarification, and take it to the Sustain Council of Trustees with a recommendation (the Council is elected by Sustain’s members). If they approve your application, this will be circulated to Sustain members via our alliance newsletter Digest for any comments or questions before ratification.

If your work is local or international rather than national, or you are an individual or represent a company or other profit-making organisation, you may prefer to get involved with a specific project or campaign, get on one or more of our mailing lists, publicise your healthy and sustainable food and farming events on our events calendar, or join a project or campaign advisory Working Party. Get in touch and we’ll help you decide how best to join in and share your unique perspectives.

Find out about Sustain membership here: www.sustainweb.org/membership/become_a_sustain_member/ Join one or more of Sustain’s mailing lists here: www.sustainweb.org/email/

Claire Whittle , farm vet, from Dung Beetles for Farmers, which joined the Sustain alliance in 2021

Martin Lines , UK Chair, Nature Friendly Farming Network, which joined the Sustain alliance in 2022

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What people say about us…

“I really appreciate all the work the Children’s Food Campaign team does in this area! We need it so badly.”

Dela Foster, Development Manager, School Food Matters

“You were super inspiring! I love what you guys are doing. I love your resources online, and your chat gave me so many new ideas.”

Rebecca Wilson, GoodNESS Project, Inverness

“Big thanks to all at Sustain for their terrific support for Dynamic Food Procurement in the public sector. Your support has been a massive help.”

Rich Osborn, Fresh Range

“Superb essay about ultra-processed food, what it is and what it does to you @childrensfood.”

Dr Chris van Tulleken, on Twitter, about a Children’s Food Campaign article

“We are excited to be partnering with Sustain on the Fringe Farming project. We hope that the additional capacity Sustain can bring will help us to influence key people, and enable us to achieve our goal of setting up a community farm on a former municipal golf course.”

“Thank you for the very useful blog you wrote on UK Funding. I have used it to create this brief tailored to Wales which I will be circulating around our Food partnerships and Food Power Alliances as well as more widely.”

Katie Palmer, Food Sense Wales, on Sustain’s blog about government funding for a good food economy

Abi Mordin, Glasgow Community Food Network

“Thank you so much to the team! It is truly a pleasure. And what an issue, it’s stunningly informative, diverse and inspiring!!!”

Chef Tom Hunt, in response to London Food Link’s Jellied Eel magazine

“The Real Bread Campaign has been an amazing resource for me since I started last year and I enjoy the feeling of being part of the baking community.”

Cath Lloyd Williams, The Doorstep Baker

“Many thanks for organising this group, it has been great to be a part of and has achieved some brilliant things. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next!”

Rulan Vasani, UK Public Health Forum, participating in discussions on trade and health

“Thank you very much for all the great resources Sustain creates – they have helped our food poverty work hugely over the last few years!”

Anna Gavurin, Caritas Westminster

“I really value the chance to meet, share and learn from members of the forum. Members bring a broad range of ideas, opinions and expertise that we can learn from, which is why the collaborative/feedback/ sharing elements are so important.”

“What a great issue – all aspects of the Real Bread business from the technical to the social, the aesthetic and the commercial.”

Andrew Guest, on the Real Bread Campaign’s True Loaf magazine

Member of the Food Learning Forum run by Sustain

“Big thank you to Sustain for convening – it has been a really useful group and brought a really vital issue higher on our radars!”

Cath Ellison, Jamie Oliver Group, participating in discussions on trade and health

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“Following your meetings, I always feel very inspired to take what I have learnt back to the partnership to implement changes. The incubator covers a wide range of topics which is great.”

Participant in the Food Roots Incubator programme run by Sustain for the Greater London Authority

“Really buzzy and so useful and well-choreographed with the drumbeat messaging around the Food Bill throughout! Well done!”

Jo Lewis, Policy Director of the Soil Association, on Sustain’s Annual Conference

“Being part of the network gives us credibility when delivering Sugar Smart workshops and some great resources too.”

Tami Skelton, Food is Fun CIC, Food Plymouth

“I know Daniel found the event really useful and enjoyed participating. It would be great to get a recording/note, Daniel has recommended I have a listen as he said there were some great speakers.”

“Sharing Sustain’s work on the Diversity Style Guide, recruitment and whole approach has been hugely helpful. We’re a much smaller organisation, so it’s hard to make the headspace and have staff time to start from scratch.”

Participant with Sustain in the Anti-Oppressive Practice programme run by Feedback

“London food link is a great resource as despite the gloomy news it keeps one grounded on the healthy way to live and fosters a community spirit which is very important now.”

Supporter of London Food Link, a network of Sustain

“The City Region and Sheffield City Council must get behind the Fringe Farming action plan. There are sound health, wellbeing, educational, environmental and economic reasons to support this sustainable and vital industry.”

Office of Daniel Zeichner, Shadow Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries, on Sustain’s Annual Conference

“‘Hackney School of Food would like to send some big love and huge thanks to Capital Growth for making our open day not only possible but free to our local area as part of their Spotlight Garden campaign.”

Tom Walker, Hackney School of Food

“You really were absolutely instrumental in getting the Mayor’s Healthy Food Advertising policy developed and over the line, so thank you once again.”

Jamie Izzard, Acting Head of Health, GLA on the TfL Healthier food advertising policy evaluation

Cllr. Alison Teal, Executive Member for Sustainable Neighbourhoods, Sheffield

“The Real Bread Campaign is a true voice for all Real Bread bakers. Lovingly Artisan is passionate about our support to the campaign and the future of Real Bread making.”

Aidan Monks, Lovingly Artisan bakery

“Being involved with Urban Harvest helped us engage with new members of the community.”

Participant in Urban Harvest 2021

“All roads lead to Sustain when it comes to food and farming”

Christopher Yap, Research Fellow, Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London

“Excellent all round, cannot wait to do it again.”

Christina Nilsen Wheatley, Edible Rotherhithe, reflecting on Good to Grow Day

“I think what you have done and are doing is fantastic.”

Hilda Mulrooney, University of Kingston, on Sustain’s trade and health work

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Internal developments

Sustain’s governance

Sustain is governed by its membership, which is open to national organisations that do not distribute profits to private shareholders and thus operate in the public interest. Members must be wholly or partly interested in food and/or farming issues and support the general aims and work of the alliance.

Sustain’s membership usually meets once a year in a general session at the Annual Conference, with business matters of the Annual General Meeting undertaken electronically to enable diverse and inclusive participation. Many alliance members also attend a range of specialist policy and project working party meetings, which are chaired either by a Sustain Council member or an expert representative of a member organisation, as well as specialist events tackling issues of common concern. Sustain Council members are elected by the membership (and a minimum of one third of the Council must stand down each year) to form a governing body of up to 15 Trustee places. At the December 2020 AGM, Sustain introduced 5 roleshare places to support new talent and diversity in leadership. This opportunity is now routinely part of our Trustee recruitment and election process, clearly signalling our intention to welcome and support people from diverse backgrounds. All Trustees and role-shares declare any relevant financial interests when they are elected, and at the beginning of each quarterly meeting, and these interests are publicly available on Sustain’s website.

Sustain’s Council of Trustees meets quarterly to guide the work of the alliance, subject to approval by the members. As the Trustees are drawn from Sustain’s membership, all of whom are thirdsector organisations, they are already familiar with structures and governance in this sector. Quarterly meetings of Sustain’s Council of Trustees were held either online or hybrid throughout the year, and we will continue with the hybrid in future as this has enabled greater participation and engagement. Meetings are well attended and have been noted as a source of great support throughout the Covid-19 pandemic by both Trustees and Sustain’s Senior Leadership Team.

This year, we refreshed our ‘adoption of roles’ system to identify a Lead Trustee for key areas of our work, with valuable contributions such as:

In line with Charity Commission guidance, Trustees will continue to note at each meeting that the arrangements enabled satisfactory discussion and scrutiny of the matters to be addressed.

For the second year running, Sustain’s AGM business and voting procedures were undertaken wholly by electronic communications (email), with the prior approval of our auditor, in line with procedures for extraordinary circumstances and advice from the Charity Commission. As we have found this to be a more efficient and inclusive process, enabling greater participation and likelihood of quoracy, we will consider continuing with electronic communications in future.

Covid-19 pandemic

As for many other organisations in our sector, Sustain has continued to work with our staff team to manage the risks and practicalities of the Covid-19 pandemic. We want to ensure that people are safe, that our work continues effectively, and that we do not generate new problems such as the mental health impacts of working in isolation.

Nevertheless, several people on our team faced especially challenging personal circumstances relating to personal or family illness. This is understandable given the very difficult ongoing circumstances and the extraordinary amount and quality of work that Sustain staff continued to undertake. We adopted a flexible approach and promoting use of compassionate leave, unpaid leave and flexible working arrangements, encouraging people to raise issues and requests, and underlining that Sustain would take a nonjudgemental and compassionate approach to any issues raised.

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We commend our wonderful staff for continuing to weather a very difficult period with solidarity, team spirit, adaptability, creativity and good humour.

Managing times of crisis

We took a range of practical actions this year to ensure people maintain personal and professional connections in a productive way, as the Covid-19 crisis moved almost seamlessly into the beginnings of the cost-of-living crisis. With the oversight of our trustees, we implemented a range of recommendations identified through consultation with staff and other organisations facing similar challenges. As a result, we allocated a budget to enable people to work more flexibly in the longer term, through purchase of equipment and furniture to be used at home. We also introduced a new system of risk assessment for home working to ensure that people are taking steps to ensure their safety and wellbeing and are aware of the support available. We continue to speak openly about mental health to reassure people that there will be no stigma for talking about the personal impact of personal, family, national and global events.

We continued to implement and review robust systems for ensuring that our financial transactions are fully secure. We continued to implement sign-off procedures with in-built double and triple checks for authenticity. This has served us well. In the wider world, there has been yet more growth in hacking attempts, phishing and fraud. However, Sustain has weathered these risks and has so far not experienced any serious breach. We remain vigilant and these matters are reviewed regularly as part of risk management, including at Trustee meetings.

During lockdown periods, we continued to pay for Sustain’s office premises as if they were occupied. As restrictions eased somewhat, several staff expressed gratitude for being able to use the office (on a restricted basis) to help manage their personal situations. As infection rates decreased, many staff members have returned to the office more regularly and we began to be able to run in-person meetings, social activities and events, whilst maintaining inclusivity wherever possible for those unable to participate for personal or health reasons. We followed government guidance and good practice for Covid risk management throughout, in consultation with the staff team.

We extend the most enormous thank you to our very considerate funders for understanding the need for us to pivot our work and granting us the flexibility to do what we needed to do.

Office premises

We are grateful to our landlord, Ethical Property Company, for the range of actions that they took throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to support health, well-being and risk management. Ethical Property Company decided to freeze office rents for the coming year, to help their third-sector clients manage economic uncertainty, which is a welcome development.

Sustain staff

Across the year, we welcomed several new members of staff to the Sustain team. We congratulate new arrivals for fitting in so well and soon becoming part of the Sustain family.

This year, Sustain entered into a voluntary recognition agreement with the IWGB Union. A key development for Sustain, championed by the Union group, is a move towards greater use of permanent contracts for staff members. There is a perennial challenge within the voluntary sector of shortterm project funding and precarity of employment contracts, making it difficult for staff members to feel secure, gain rental agreements and loans, and make life plans. This year, we started a major review of how Sustain can move towards more permanent contracts and adopt a fundraising and financial management model that can support such ambitions. We also worked on documenting our procedure to create a more consistent, robust and accountable timetable with allocated tasks for contract management and end-of-contract notification, notice periods and provision of information about redundancy entitlement.

Sustain’s Senior Leadership Team received external support during the year to help manage an organisation going through growth, change and times of national crisis. Sustain chief executive Kath Dalmeny undertook a series of sessions of leadership coaching with Susanna Abse of the Ballint Consultancy (also former chief executive of the Tavistock Institute), which she found immensely helpful. Sustain also joined the Association for Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO), which enabled coaching sessions for our Deputy Chief Executive Ben Reynolds and Director of Programmes Sarah Williams, which they have both found valuable. We also recruited Executive Assistant Sophie Davies, a new role for Sustain, who provides very valuable support in terms of planning, strategic outreach, meeting organisation and diary management.

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Sustain has grown in size, complexity and influence over the past three years. This requires greater attention to staffing and structure, as described in our previous Annual Report, yet without becoming too top heavy and less nimble. This year, we formalised and extended a level within our job titles and salary scale in recognition of the seniority and responsibilities of key people heading up our sustainable farming and public affairs teams, who are now described as ‘Head’ of their relevant area.

We established a new Line Managers Forum, to help develop and enhance our skills, culture and processes for effective line management. This has become a useful space for coordinating and documenting our work, to embed and communicate good practice and ensure consistency. One of this group’s first joint work was to update the annual appraisal template. We also worked together to develop and offer members of staff a Personal Development Framework document as a tool for thinking through any skills, training or work experience the person may wish to pursue.

Developments in relation to training and skills; diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice; and in relation to development of our recruitment and staff induction systems, are reported in other sections.

Fair pay

Sustain renewed our annual commitment and licence to declare ourselves a registered London Living Wage Employer; as have our landlords Ethical Property Company, so cleaning and other staff are included. We are proud to be part of the growing Living Wage movement as a key response to poverty, food poverty and health equity. Sustain also promotes London Living Wage accreditation via our Good Food for All Londoners report and league table of boroughs, as one of the key ways local authorities can help to reduce food poverty.

For the fifth year, Sustain’s Annual Report contains an independently audited Pay Ratio Analysis. We are pleased to report that Sustain’s Pay Ratio is between 2:1 (highest to lowest salaries) and 3:1 (highest salary to London Living Wage), well within the Wagemark benchmark of 8:1 considered to be good practice.

Policies and procedures

Last year, we reported on Sustain’s growth and restructure, as well as our response to evolving staff expectations. This year, we continued to update a range of policies and procedures, including:

We also undertook a major piece of work to overhaul Sustain’s intranet, which serves as our Staff Handbook, with the wide range of policies, guidance and documents developed over recent years. Further, we have published a range of key policies on the Sustain website to enable scrutiny and to ensure that candidates for jobs can review key employment information.

Sustain’s funding

Sustain needs adequate financial and other resources to pursue our work effectively. The majority of Sustain’s income is from charitable grants from trusts and foundations, listed in this Annual Report. Project proposals and funding bids are developed by Sustain staff, in consultation with Sustain and working party members. A minority of Sustain’s income comes from alliance membership fees, subscriptions, book and publication sales and unsolicited voluntary donations from individual supporters or supporting organisations. Sustain occasionally actively solicits donations from campaign supporters.

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We are grateful to our funders for supporting development of work on Sustain’s priorities, across a range of important themes, including sustainable farming, sustainable fishing, the green food economy and the climate and nature emergency. Multi-year grants from several of our funders, offered in a flexible way, continue to mark a welcome shift in the relationship between Sustain, funders and other donors keen to invest in strategic partnership programmes driving ambitious change in policy and practice. Due to a welcome new level of staffing and financial stability, we have been able to continue to pay much more attention to investing in Sustain’s cross-cutting capacities, such as communications, public affairs, parliamentary engagement, influence and work on the climate and nature emergency.

Temporary uplift in turnover

During the previous financial year, Sustain distributed a substantial amount of grant money on behalf of others, to help people and communities most in need, to ease the burden of the frontline response to the Covid food emergency. This temporarily inflated Sustain’s apparent turnover by over £750k for that year. Our accounts this year show Sustain returning to our more typical scale and turnover.

Awards won by Sustain staff

The incredible efforts to mobilise increased food support during the Covid-19 pandemic were strongly in the spotlight at 2021’s Third Sector Excellence Awards, as the End Child Food Poverty Coalition scooped the top prize in the Big Impact category. Sustain played a leading role in the coalition, spearheaded by the Food Foundation and supported by many members of our alliance including School Food Matters, Bite Back 2030 and Chefs in Schools. Judges awarding the prize described the End Child Food Poverty Coalition as “a far-reaching, data-driven, successful campaign, which not only addressed the immediate crisis but also brought about long-term change”.

The coalition of over 30 organisations mobilised across the UK to call firstly for effective free school meal provision to families at home during lockdown, then for continued support during holiday periods, as well as expansion of eligibility to more children experiencing food insecurity – a call taken up and championed by Premier League footballer Marcus Rashford’s End Child Food Poverty campaign.

Strategic review

Sustain continues to implement our strategy Fertile Future, 2021 to 2025 through a range of policy groups, project working parties and campaign activities.

In between Covid lockdowns, we were pleased to bring Sustain staff and trustees together for a lively and productive strategy day in September 2021 to help us review our progress and generate ideas for the future. We were delighted to be able to visit Oasis City Farm in the Waterloo area of London, and to see each other after protracted periods of working online and in isolation. It was also a wonderful opportunity to meet several new staff members in person, as they had been recruited during lockdown and had previously interacted with Sustain only online. The strategy day covered:

Sustain strategy days are a chance to step back from the day-to-day project delivery work and for everyone to help shape the organisation’s direction over the coming year. We work with a highly creative team, who generate excellent ideas for how we meet our organisational priorities – both in terms of impact on policy and practice; and in terms of staff, systems and operational capacity. We ran sessions on the ambitions we would set and the actions we would take, over the coming year in relation to our Organisation Development Plan themes: Influence; Diversity; Supporters and Skills (details in other sections of this report).

The Sustain Annual Conference provided an opportunity for alliance members to come together and review on of our strategic priorities. On the theme of Keeping Food on the Political Plate , the well-attended conference took place in December 2021, online. Given the context of the National Food Strategy white paper being due early in 2022, the conference was a timely opportunity for our network to come together, galvanise momentum

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for our ideas and keep the pressure on government to aim for a food bill to provide the accountability framework for change.

Sustain’s annual conference in December 2021 was once again a great success, tackling the important theme: Keeping food on the political plate, featuring speakers from across the food and farming sector. We thank several Sustain Trustees for having expertly chaired or contributed to a number of the sessions. Recordings of the conference are online at: www.sustainweb.org/webinars/annualconference-2021. Sessions included:

short pitches from Sustain campaigns and alliance member organisations

Photo: Sustain’s chief executive Kath Dalmeny addresses funders, supporters and advocates at an allotment garden gathering in Regent’s Park, credit: Stephanie Kennedy

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Financial review

The Council of Trustees (who are the Directors of the Charity for company law purposes) present their report and the audited financial accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022. The Trustees confirm that the annual report and financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the requirements of the Charity’s governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102.

Reserves policy

In accordance with guidelines from the Charity Commissioners, the Trustees have adopted a reserves policy that should ensure that: Excluding those funds represented by fixed assets, general reserves do not exceed more than six months’ anticipated expenditure. The Trustees review amounts regularly, monitor progress in relation to target levels quarterly, and deemed in the financial year covered by this report that there were adequate funds to ensure the charity was able to meet all current, known and some estimated possible future liabilities.

Investment policy

The fund balance carried forward at 31 March 2022 was £687,948 (2021: £614,095) on unrestricted general reserves. The designated reserves at 31 March 2022 was £185,267 (2021: £159,863). The restricted reserves on continuing projects were £209,351 at 31 March 2022 (2021: £203,118). The full Statement of Financial Activities is set out in the accounts below.

Risk management

The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the company is exposed, in particular those related to operations and finances of the company, and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to major risks. The Sustain rolling risk register and risk management process, reviewed formally at least quarterly by Trustees and Sustain’s senior management team, and additionally as necessary, considers possible risks and prudent ways to avoid such risks arising, as well as mitigation should problems occur, grouped under the following broad themes:

Under the memorandum and articles of association, the charity has the power to invest the monies of the company not immediately required for the furtherance of its objects in or upon such investments, securities or property as may be thought fit, subject nevertheless to such condition (as any) and such consents (if any) as may for the time being be imposed or required by law. At the present time, the Trustees’ policy is to maintain such monies on deposits earning a market rate of interest, in a bank or banks with ethical credentials. No further ‘social investment’ is currently planned.

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Trustees’ responsibilities

Company and charity law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and of its financial activities for that year. In preparing those accounts, the Trustees are required to:

The Trustees have overall responsibility for ensuring that the company has appropriate systems of control, financial or otherwise. They are also responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and which enable them to ensure that the accounts comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Setting staff pay

Sustain operates a fair and transparent fixed salary scale for setting staff pay, including key management personnel – the persons with authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the charity. This salary scale cannot be changed without Trustee approval. Sustain’s salary scale is grouped under four ascending grades – Administrative and Project Officer; Project Coordinator; Senior Manager; Chief Executive. New recruits start at the salary grade suited to their post, as advertised, and usually at entry level for that grade. Subject to satisfactory annual appraisal, staff move up a salary level within their grade until the top level is reached. On the exceptional occasions when a new recruit has the experience and credentials to warrant appointment at a higher salary than the entry level for their grade, this offer and decision remains in line with the standard salary scale, except starting at a higher level, and with the knowledge and agreement of at least one Sustain Trustee, who

has usually participated in the recruitment process. In addition to the salary scale, salaries (and hence the levels in the salary scale) also rise in line with inflation, calculated annually on the actual inflation rate in the preceding year.

As a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity, Sustain covers normal expenses, requires evidence of such claims and expenditure and keeps good records. Sustain does not pay bonuses to staff.

Fair pay

Sustain is a registered Living Wage employer, committed to paying at least the Living Wage or the London Living Wage, as calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, which reflects the cost of living. This year, we have also continued to apply a Pay Ratio analysis as part of the Annual Report process, seeking to ensure that Sustain maintains a fair pay ratio between the highest and lowest earners, benchmarked against sector good practice.

Public benefit

The Trustees are aware of Charity Commission guidance on public benefit reporting as set out in Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011. They believe Sustain fulfils a fundamental public benefit by promoting both the health and welfare of people and animals, improving the environment and promoting sustainable development. How Sustain achieves these objectives is described in more detail throughout this annual report and on the Sustain website.

Auditors

So far as the directors (Trustees) are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the company’s auditors are unaware. Additionally, the directors have taken all of the necessary steps that they ought to, as directors, to make themselves aware of all the relevant audit information and to establish that the company’s auditors are aware of that information. A proposal to re-appoint Goldwins as auditors for the forthcoming year will be put forward at the Annual General Meeting.

This report was approved by the Council of Trustees on 14 December 2022 and signed on its behalf, by:

Professor Mike Rayner Chair of the Council of Trustees

29

Auditor’s report

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming (the ‘Charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2022 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, statement of cash flows and the related notes. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Opinion on financial statements

In our opinion the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditorʼs responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRCʼs Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditorʼs report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

30

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

Matters on which we

are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ Annual Report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of the trustees

As explained more fully in the Trustees’ Responsibilities Statement, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view and for such internal control as they determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the Charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditorʼs report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out below.

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

31

or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the charity from our professional and sector experience.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Councilʼs website at: [www.frc. org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities]. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Anthony Epton (Senior Statutory Auditor)

for and on behalf of

Goldwins Limited Statutory Auditor Chartered Accountants 75 Maygrove Road West Hampstead London NW6 2EG

14 December 2022

32

Statement of financial activities

(incorporating and income and expenditure account) For the year ended 31 March 2022

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
Unrestricted Restricted
funds funds Total funds Total funds
Note £ £ £ £
Income from:
Donations and legacies 3 40,296 9,704 50,000 72,044
Charitable activities
Health and Welfare 4 395,568 1,127,231 1,522,799 2,496,141
- - - -
Other trading activities
Investments 5 670 - 670 1,260
Other - - - -
Total income 436,534 1,136,935 1,573,469 2,569,445
Expenditure on:
Raising funds 6 18,094 - 18,094 8,494
Charitable activities
Health and Welfare 6 319,183 1,130,702 1,449,885 2,230,708
Other - - - -
Total expenditure 337,277 1,130,702 1,467,979 2,239,202
Net income / (expenditure) before net
gains / (losses) on investments 99,257 6,233 105,490 330,243
- - - -
Net gains / (losses) on investments
Net income / (expenditure) for the year 7 99,257 6,233 105,490 330,243
Transfers between funds - - - -
Net income / (expenditure) before other
recognised gains and losses 99,257 6,233 105,490 330,243
Net movement in funds 99,257 6,233 105,490 330,243
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward 773,958 203,118 977,076 646,833
Total funds carried forward 873,215 209,351 1,082,566 977,076
----- End of picture text -----

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 18 to the financial statements.

33

Balance sheet

As at 31 March 2022

ance sheet
31 March 2022		 ance sheet
31 March 2022
Note
£
s
s
e
t
s
:
12

a
s
s
e
t
s
:
13
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0
2
,
1
9
6
1
,
4
7
1
,
5
3
9
1
,
5
7
3
,
7
3
5
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s
:
14
4
9
1
,
1
6
9
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1
8
5
,
2
6
7
6
8
7
,
9
4
8
nrestricted funds

a
r
i
t
y
f
u
n
d
s
eral funds
bank and in hand
e assets
e
t
a
s
s
e
t
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s
s
c
u
r
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e
n
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s

d
s
o
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:
ed income funds
icted income funds:
ignated funds

rs: amounts falling due within one year
r
e
n
t
a
s
s
e
t
s		 2
0
2
2
£
£
~~-~~
~~-~~
192,673
1,134,464
1,327,137
350,061
1
,
0
8
2
,
5
6
6
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,
0
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2
,
5
6
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159,863
614,095
8
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1
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0
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2

5
6
6		 2021
£
-
-
977,076
1
,
5
7
3
,
7
3
5
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1
,
1
6
9
1
8
5
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2
6
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6
8
7
,
9
4
8
977,076
203,118
773,958
977076

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions for small companies under Part15 of the Companies Act 2006.

Approved by the trustees on …………………………..14 December 2022 and signed on their behalf by

Professor Michael Rayner Chair

Victoria Williams Treasurer

34

Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Note 2
0
2
2		 2
0
2
2		 2
0
2
2		 2
0
2
2		 2021 2021
£ £ £ £
C
a
s
h
 f
l
o
w
s
 f
r
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m
 o
p
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r
a
t
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 a
c
t
i
v
i
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s		 19
N
e
t
 c
a
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 p
r
o
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i
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y
/
(
u
s
e
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 i
n
)
 o
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r
a
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 a
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v
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t
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s		 3
3
6
,
4
0
5		 175,100
C
a
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 f
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m
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:
Dividends, interest and rents from investments 6
7
0		 1,260
N
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 c
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 p
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(
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7
0		 1,260
C
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 c
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r		 3
3
7
,
0
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5		 176,360
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the
year 1
,
1
3
4
,
4
6
4		 958,104
C
a
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d		 c
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a
r		 20 1
,
4
7
1
,
5
3
9		 1,134,464

35

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern. Key judgements that the charitable company has made which have a significant effect on the accounts. The trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.

Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date on which either: the charity is aware that probate has been granted, the estate has been finalised and notification has been made by the executor(s) to the charity that a distribution will be made, or when a distribution is received from the estate. Receipt of a legacy, in whole or in part, is only considered probable when the amount can be measured reliably and the charity has been notified of the executor’s intention to make a distribution. Where legacies have been notified to the charity, or the charity is aware of the granting of probate, and the criteria for income recognition have not been met, then the legacy is a treated as a contingent asset and disclosed if material. Income received in advance of the provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.

On receipt, donated gifts, professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.

Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.

36

1 Accounting policies (continued)

g) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

h) Allocation of support costs

Resources expended are allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity, comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on the basis which are an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.

Where information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is provided to potential beneficiaries, the costs associated with this publicity are allocated to charitable expenditure.

Where such information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is also provided to potential donors, activity costs are apportioned between fundraising and charitable activities on the basis of area of literature occupied by each activity.

i) Operating leases

Rental charges are charged on a straight line basis over the term of the lease.

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £1,000. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

Office equipment 25% straight line

k) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

m) Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

n) Financial instruments

o) Pensions

The charity operates workplace pension scheme.

37

3 Income from donations and legacies

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
£ £ £ £
Donations 40,296 9,704 50,000 72,044
Total income from donations 2022 40,296 9,704 50,000 72,044
Total income from donations 2021 50,569 21,475 72,044
4 Income from charitable activities
2022 2021
Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
£ £ £ £
Grant income
AIM Foundation - 10,417 10,417 -
Ashden Trust - 22,486 22,486 15,000
- - -
Baring Foundation 26,473
BIG grant - 87,986 87,986 365,009
City Bridge Trust - 84,500 84,500 31,164
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (various) 100,000 2,450 102,450 163,613
European Maritime and Fisheries Fund & Marine
Management Organisation - - - 106
- - -
European Union 107,380
Farming the Future - 47,534 47,534 41,430
Friends Provident Foundation - 31,535 31,535 14,400
Greater London Authority (various) - 126,840 126,840 45,000
Guy's and St Thomas' Charity - 112,639 112,639 124,301
Heart of Bucks - 8,407 8,407 3,204
Hull City Council - 23,100 23,100 23,000
John Ellerman Foundation - 41,667 41,667 50,000
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust - 50,000 50,000 37,500
Kenneth Miller Trust - 60,000 60,000 25,000
Kestrelman Trust - - - 20,000
Lancashire County Council - 12,500 12,500 -
London Borough of Southwark - 5,950 5,950 -
- - -
Network for Social Change 10,000
Oak Foundation - 23,076 23,076 -
Open University 4,500 - 4,500 -
Rothschild Foundation - 25,000 25,000 53,000
Royal Parks Foundation - 30,254 30,254 20,143
Samworth Foundation 50,000 - 50,000 50,000
Sustainable Food Places (Big Lottery Fund and Esmee
Fairbairn Foundation) - 243,240 243,240 223,448
Thirty Percy Foundation 150,000 - 150,000 150,000
Trust for London - 60,000 60,000 57,500
Unicef - 17,650 17,650 757,461
Other income
Conference and workshops 942 - 942 3,000
Membership fees 34,194 - 34,194 28,012
Sales and publications 9,002 - 9,002 2,153
Subscriptions 46,930 - 46,930 48,844
Total income from charitable activities 2022 395,568 1,127,231 1,522,799 2,496,141
Total income from charitable activities 2021 452,009 2,044,132 2,496,141
5 Income from investments
2022 2021
Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
£ £ £ £
Investment income 670 - 670 1,260
Total income from investments 2022 670 - 670 1,260
Total income from investments 2021 1,260 - 1,260
----- End of picture text -----

38

6 a. Analysis of expenditure

----- Start of picture text -----
Cost of
raising Charitable Support 2021
funds activities costs 2022 Total Total
£ £ £ £ £
Staff costs (Note 8) 15,100 977,793 147,490 1,140,383 974,362
Direct cost
Payable to partner organisations - 99,665 - 99,665 1,020,220
Consultancy costs - 72,820 - 72,820 119,195
Volunteers - 161 - 161 533
Printing and photocopying - 12,961 - 12,961 6,579
Postage and distribution - 5,769 - 5,769 5,949
Travel, meeting and expenses - 23,372 - 23,372 6,479
Other charitable expenditure - 17,441 - 17,441 23,681
Support cost
Telephone and fax - - 25 25 36
Office costs - - 87,582 87,582 74,368
Audit fees - - 7,800 7,800 7,800
15,100 1,209,982 242,897 1,467,979 2,239,202
-
Support costs 2,994 239,903 (242,897)
Total expenditure 2022 18,094 1,449,885 - 1,467,979
Total expenditure 2021 8,494 2,230,708
----- End of picture text -----

Of the total expenditure, £337,277 was unrestricted (2021: £159,006) and £1,130,702 was restricted (2021: £2,080,196).

The amount payable to partner organisations is made up of several different payments – the majority being payments passed onto Buckinghamshire Food Partnership (£7k); Food Roots partners (£16.4k); Food Power partners (£30.6k); Capital Growth partners(£1.1k); Peri-Urban Farming partners (£9.4k); and acting as grant conduit for Cambridge Sustainable Food Partnership (£35k).

b. Analysis of expenditure from previous reporting period

s
t
s
(
N
o
t
e
8
)
o
s
t
to partner organisations
ancy costs
ers
and photocopying
and distribution
meeting and expenses
aritable expenditure

c
o
s
t
ne and fax
osts
es
costs

p
e
n
d
i
t
u
r
e
2
0
2
1		 Cost of
£
7,643
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
7,643
851
8494		 Charitable
£
824,610
1,020,220
119,195
533
6,579
5,949
6,479
23,681
-
-
-
2,007,246
223,462
2230708		 Support
2021 T
£
142,109
974
-
1,020
-
119
-
-
6
-
5
-
6
-
23
36
74,368
74
7,800
7
224,313
2,239
(224,313)
-
2239

39

7 Net income/ (expenditure) for the year

This is stated after charging / crediting:

This is stated after charging / crediting:
2
0
2
2		 2021
£ £
Depreciation ~~-~~ -
Operating lease rentals:
Property 4
5
,
9
6
8		 40,471
Auditors' remuneration (excluding VAT):
Audit 6
,
2
0
0		 6,200

8 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel

Staff costs were as follows:

and wages
ecurity costs
ancy and termination costs
er’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes		 2
0
2
2
2021
£
£
1
,
0
0
5
,
8
0
9
857,622
4
,
0
3
0
317
8
0
,
8
8
9
75,293
4
9
,
6
5
5
41,130
1

1
4
0

3
8
3
974362

No employee earned more than £60,000 during the year (2021: nil).

The total employee benefits including national insurance and pension contributions of the key management personnel were £203,544 (2021: £190,721).

The charity trustees were not paid or received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2021: £nil). No charity trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2021: £nil).

Trustees' expenses represents the payment or reimbursement of travel and subsistence costs totalling £118 incurred by 1 member (2021: £100) relating to attendance at meetings of the trustees.

9 Staff numbers

The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was as follows:

funds
and Welfare
t		 2
0
2
2
2021
N
o
~~.~~
No.
0
~~.~~
4
0.2
2
4
~~.~~
9
21.2
3
~~.~~
7
3.6
2
9
~~.~~
0
2
5
~~.~~
0

40

10 Related party transactions

The following declaration provides transparency on related party transactions and, as appropriate, are also routinely declared by Sustain’s Trustees at their quarterly meetings and publicly on the Sustain website.

A number of trustees and management team members hold prominent positions in other organisations.

Sustain received a grant of £243,240 (2021: £223,448) via the Soil Association, which is the overall programme manager for the Sustainable Food Places network – a programme run jointly by Food Matters, Soil Association (both Sustain members) and Sustain. Three of Sustain's trustees are a member of staff for the Soil Association and Food Matters. The Chief Executive of Sustain is a board member of Food Matters. Furthermore, Food Matters received £23,400 from Sustain for work on Buckinghamshire Food Partnership, FoodSHIFT and Food Roots.

The Real Bread Campaign also received annual membership fees of £45 from Welbeck Bakehouse as well as the School of Artisan Foods. In addition, the Real Bread Campaign also received a donation of £1,000 from Welbeck Bakehouse for the ‘Knead to Know more…’ publication Crowdfunder appeal. A Sustain Trustee is the owner and on the board at these respective organisations.

Sustain received a payment of £2,000 from Pesticide Action Network UK for work on the Toxic Trade report. Two of Sustain's trustees are members of staff at Pesticide Action Network.

Finally, Sustain received £4,200 from Growing Communities in relation to our work on Better Food Traders, which is a member of the Sustain alliance. Sustain’s Chief Executive is on the board at Growing Communities, a social enterprise, on a voluntary basis.

11 Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

12 Tangible fixed assets

Fixtures,
fittings and
Equipment T
o
t
a
l
£ £
C
o
s
t
At the start of the year 33,658 3
3
,
6
5
8
Additions in year - ~~-~~
Disposals in year - ~~-~~
At the end of the year 33,658 3
3
,
6
5
8
D
e
p
r
e
c
i
a
t
i
o
n
At the start of the year 33,658 3
3
,
6
5
8
Charge for the year - ~~-~~
Eliminated on disposal - ~~-~~
At the end of the year 33,658 3
3
,
6
5
8
N
e
t
b
o
o
k
v
a
l
u
e
A
t
 t
h
e
e
n
d
o
f
t
h
e
y
e
a
r		 - ~~-~~
At the start of the year - -
All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.

16

41

13 Debtors

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
£ £
Other debtors 38,537 120,946
Prepayments 4,779 4,779
Accrued income 58,880 66,948
102,196 192,673
14 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
2022 2021
£ £
Other creditors 5,058 29,577
Accruals 14,360 24,095
Deferred income 471,751 296,389
491,169 350,061
----- End of picture text -----

15 Deferred income

Deferred income comprises of grants from the following: AIM Foundation £14,584, Big Lottery Fund £24,946, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation £50,000, European Union £56,457, Farming the Future £49,969, Kenneth Miller Trust £10,417, Oak Foundation £115,378 and Thirty Percy Foundation £150,000.

Balance at the beginning of the year
Amount released to income in the year
Amount deferred in the year
Balance at the end of the year		 2
0
2
2
2021
£
£
2
9
6
,
3
8
9
526,700
(
2
9
6
,
3
8
9
)
(526,700)
4
7
1
,
7
5
1
296,389
4
7
1
,
7
5
1
296,389

16 Pension scheme

The charity operates workplace pension scheme and has no pension liability as at the year end.

42

17 Analysis of net assets between funds

----- Start of picture text -----
General
unrestricted Designated Restricted Total funds
£ £ £ £
- - - -
Tangible fixed assets
Net current assets 687,948 185,267 209,351 1,082,566
Net assets at the end of the year 687,948 185,267 209,351 1,082,566
18 Movements in funds
Incoming Outgoing
At the start resources & resources & At the end
of the year gains losses Transfers of the year
£ £ £ £ £
Restricted funds:
Campaign for a Better Food Britain 6,664 44,117 (42,648) - 8,133
Capital Growth 17,900 134,754 (124,941) - 27,713
Children's Food Campaign 14,286 197,577 (188,367) - 23,496
Climate and Nature - 23,076 (9,043) - 14,033
FoodSHIFT 2030 69,867 - (51,200) - 18,667
Food Poverty 42,840 252,556 (262,231) - 33,165
London Food Link 5,909 13,000 (18,909) - -
Sustainable Farming and Land Use 25,831 160,055 (135,639) - 50,247
Sustainable Food Places 19,821 311,800 (297,724) - 33,897
Total restricted funds 203,118 1,136,935 (1,130,702) - 209,351
Unrestricted funds:
Designated funds:
Employment Liabilities 109,863 - 2,690 12,714 125,267
Innovation and Activities Fund 50,000 - - - 50,000
Match Funding Contingency - - - 10,000 10,000
Total designated funds 159,863 - 2,690 22,714 185,267
General funds 614,095 436,534 (339,967) (22,714) 687,948
Total unrestricted funds 773,958 436,534 (337,277) - 873,215
Total funds 977,076 1,573,469 (1,467,979) - 1,082,566
----- End of picture text -----

Purposes of restricted funds

Income that is received for specific projects, as – for example – grants, donations and earned income, is accounted for as restricted funds, with expenditure usually attributed over a specific period of time. We manage restricted funds carefully, keep expenditure under regular review, and aim to keep to the specified budget. If project funds are projected to be overspent for an unavoidable reason, we take action early to reduce expenditure and/or raise more funds to cover the potential shortfall. If we continue to project and incur an unavoidable overspend, a transfer is made from Sustain’s unrestricted funds. The balances on restricted funds as at 31 March 2022 arise from income received for specific projects on which some expenditure is still to be incurred in the coming financial year. Each of Sustain’s projects is described in more detail below:

43

Purposes of restricted funds (continued)

Campaign for a Better Food Britain (includes Sustain’s work relating to Brexit): The campaign helps Sustain’s alliance to make their voices heard in important discussions about the future of the UK’s approach to food, farming and fishing, particularly with regard to health, ethics and sustainability.

Capital Growth: Run by Sustain's London Food Link network, this offers practical support to communities around London to help more people grow more food, and to have greater access to land, skills and growing spaces for community benefit.

Children’s Food Campaign: Advocates for better food and food teaching for children in schools, protection of children from unhealthy food marketing, high food standards for health and well-being, and clear food labelling that can be understood by everyone.

Climate and Nature Emergency: Catalyses large-scale and systematic solutions in the food and farming system as one of the key ways to avert climate change and restore nature, with a special focus on national and local policy, and institutional responsibilities at all levels, for taking measurable action.

FoodSHIFT 2030 is an EU-funded Horizon 2020 consortium programme involving 10 city-region projects across Europe. Sustain’s role is to share experiences of campaigning and movement building on healthy and sustainable food, involving a wide range of places.

Food Poverty: Sustain’s programme of work seeking to tackle the root causes of food poverty, and encouraging policies and practices that would enable everyone to eat well. This includes:

Good Food Trade: Advocating for international trade agreements that guarantee a supply of food that is safe, affordable and good for our health, animal welfare, the environment and decent farming livelihoods, here and abroad. We want to see precious natural resources protected and damaging emissions that cause climate change reduced.

London Food Link: The umbrella for all of Sustain's initiatives in the capital. London Food Link (LFL) is a network of organisations and individuals in London who grow, make, cook, sell, save and simply enjoy good food in the capital.

Real Bread Campaign: Champions locally baked, additive-free bread, finding and sharing ways to make all loaves better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

Sustainable Farming and Land Use: Advocates for improvements in policy and practice to support better farming livelihoods, more and better jobs in sustainable food production, fair trading practices, and the subsidies, policies and industry practices that would incentivise change towards healthy, fair and environmentally sustainable food production. Also includes our Fringe Farming campaign for more periurban horticulture. Sustainable Fish Cities: The campaign to protect precious marine environments, fish species and promote sustainable fishing livelihoods, calling for fish to be bought only from verifiably sustainable sources. We show at large scale what can be done if people and organisations make a concerted effort to change their buying habits, working with UK towns, cities, businesses and institutions.

Sustainable Food Places: The Sustainable Food Places Network – organised jointly by Food Matters, Soil Association and Sustain – helps people and places share challenges, explore practical solutions and develop good practice on key food issues. It encourages public, private and third-sector groups and local communities to work together to improve their food system. Sustain helps the network to run a series of campaigns, this year including:

44

19 Reconciliation of net income / (expenditure) to net cash flow from operating activities

----- Start of picture text -----
2022 2021
£ £
Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period 105,490 330,243
(as per the statement of financial activities)
Dividends, interest and rent from investments (670) (1,260)
(Increase)/decrease in debtors 90,477 53,822
Increase/(decrease) in creditors 141,108 (207,705)
Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities 336,405 175,100
20 Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
At 1 April Other At 31 March
2021 Cash flows changes 2022
£ £ £ £
Cash in hand 1,134,464 337,075 - 1,471,539
Total cash and cash equivalents 1,134,464 337,075 - 1,471,539
----- End of picture text -----

21 Operating lease commitments

The charity has no future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases.

22 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.

45

23 Notes from 2021 accounts (prior year)

a. Summary analysis of assets and liabilities by funds of previous reporting period

General

----- Start of picture text -----
unrestricted Designated Restricted Total funds
£ £ £ £
- - - -
Tangible fixed assets
Net current assets 614,095 159,863 203,118 977,076
Net assets at the end of the year 614,095 159,863 203,118 977,076
----- End of picture text -----

b. Details of movement in funds during the previous reporting period

----- Start of picture text -----
Incoming Outgoing
At the start resources & resources & At the end
of the year gains losses Transfers of the year
£ £ £ £ £
Restricted funds:
Campaign for a Better Food Britain 4,943 73,613 (71,892) - 6,664
Capital Growth 13,634 84,807 (81,030) 489 17,900
Children's Food Campaign 4,701 192,301 (182,716) - 14,286
FoodSHIFT 2030 (1,024) 107,380 (36,489) - 69,867
Food Poverty 105,189 1,215,443 (1,279,792) 2,000 42,840
London Food Link 20,263 16,825 (29,179) (2,000) 5,909
- - -
Real Bread Campaign 17,028 (17,028)
Sustainable Farming and Land Use 55,894 95,480 (125,543) - 25,831
Sustainable Fish Cities 58 106 (164) - -
Sustainable Food Places 13,560 279,652 (273,391) - 19,821
Total restricted funds 234,246 2,065,607 (2,080,196) (16,539) 203,118
Unrestricted funds:
Designated funds:
Employment Liabilities - - - 109,863 109,863
Innovation and Activities Fund - - - 50,000 50,000
- - -
Total designated funds 159,863 159,863
General funds 412,587 503,838 (159,006) (143,324) 614,095
Total unrestricted funds 412,587 503,838 (159,006) 16,539 773,958
Total funds 646,833 2,569,445 (2,239,202) - 977,076
----- End of picture text -----

46

Funders

Sustain would like to thank the following funders for their financial support for our work over the course of this financial year:

AIM Foundation Ashden Trust BIG grant Big Lottery Fund City Bridge Trust Economic and Social Research Council Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (various) European Union - Horizon 2020 Farming the Future Friends Provident Foundation Greater London Authority (various) Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity (also known as Impact on Urban Health) Heart of Bucks Hull City Council John Ellerman Foundation Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Kenneth Miller Trust Kestrelman Trust Lancashire County Council London Borough of Southwark London Community Response Fund Oak Foundation Open University Rothschild Foundation Royal Parks Foundation Samworth Foundation Sustainable Food Places Thirty Percy Foundation Trust for London Unicef UK

47

Annual report

For the year ended 31 March 2022

A Sustain publication December 2022

Sustain is a powerful alliance of organisations and communities working together for a better system of food, farming and fishing. We believe everyone should have access to healthy and sustainably produced food that protects people, animals and planet. The Sustain alliance brings together around 100 organisations nationally – and hundreds more at local and regional level – cultivating the movement for change.

Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming

sustain@sustainweb.org www.sustainweb.org

Sustain, The Green House 244-254 Cambridge Heath Road London E2 9DA 020 3559 6777

Sustain works as an alliance to achieve our shared vision of a food, fishing and farming system, in which:

Sustain is a Registered Charity No. 1018643

© Sustain 2022