A passionate community

By starting an Open Food Network in your region, you will have access to the open source software platform and sector development material, and input into product decision-making. You will also become part of a supportive community of others around the world working on the same challenges and sharing knowledge and resources to help one another.

We believe that anything we build is stronger if we do it together. We build on one another’s work in an open innovation mindset. What we create is part of the global commons that we share and co-develop. By all contributing into a global project, we are able to produce much more than if each of us were working alone.

How to start Open Food Network

Get to know the Open Food Network

First, you need to clearly understand what the Open Food Network is, our holistic approach  to food systems and our commons oriented approach.

We invite you to carefully read the Open Food Network handbook, where we provide all the details about the project, the people and roles required, the tasks, how we prioritise the work to be done, the decision making process, etc. You can also watch this demo video to see at a glance how the Open Food Network platform works.

Understand what being part of the Open Food Network means

Then you need to understand what it means to be an Open Food Network affiliate. You can read the community pledge that explains the different types of members in the community and what it means to be part of this community. Within the pledge you will find information on the process to become an affiliate or an associate member. Associates are not official Open Food Network branded entities, but are partners of our community (usually, white label users of the Open Food Network software). Find out more in the Open Food Network handbook. 

Start getting skilled-up

So you’ve read through those documents, and you know you want to establish a local Open Food Network community ? GREAT! What now?

You need to understand in detail what it takes to start a community, onboard contributors, deploy the Open Food Network software locally, get your first users, etc. You will find everything in the Open Food Network handbook. 

Join the community

As you start all this community building process, get in touch with us ! Our experience is that local Open Food Network leaders have been more successful when pairing with people who already started local Open Food Network communities in other places.

Contact us, we’ll be happy to guide you through and put you in touch with any other people in your country who have already contacted us!