About Us
What we do
The Open Food Network is a global network of people and organisations working together to build a new food system. Together, we develop open and shared resources, knowledge and software to support a better food system.
We believe a sustainable and resilient food system needs to reconnect producers and consumers. We aim to empower people and communities and give them the tools and knowledge to develop the food systems they need for their community.
Our flagship project is an open source software platform that makes it easy to create innovative, independent, community food enterprises. The software can be used by farmers setting up their own online stores, but it’s designed to help farmers collaborate and sell together, to create thriving, viable enterprises. People have used the power of this feature to create food collectives, manage food hubs, to take their farmers’ market online with pre-purchases to give stallholders more secure sales, and more.
The Open Food Network community has decades of experience in running innovative food enterprises with social and ecological aims. We know that good food can transform our planet and our society. We also know that making values-driven food enterprise work takes commitment, perseverance, partnerships and support. The Open Food Network community want to help you to make values-driven food enterprises thrive! And we invite you to join us in creating this community of change.
Our history
Open Food Network was founded in 2012 in Australia but is now an international community that is locally-led across the world. Open Food Network is operating in 20 countries, with more joining us every year. We welcome new partners, new volunteers, and new relationships that will help us achieve our vision of a food system that is fair, sustainable and resilient.
One of the great benefits of being part of Open Food Network is that all around the world passionate, dedicated people are putting in time, great ideas, and hard work to help share the load of building the software platform and creating the resources needed to build a better food system. We work together so that we’re all helping reach each goal we set, which means that all around the world, we get more than we could possibly create on our own!
Open Food Network operates on an open and transparent governance model. We use collaborative decision-making within our global network of communities, and we work collaboratively with farmers and food enterprises in each country to design software and resources that support their needs.
At the core of everything we do is a belief that creating a new food system requires a new way of operating. This is why we create open source solutions, communicate with transparency, and hold everything we create as part of the Commons – it doesn’t belong to a single entity, but instead to a community.
To use the software platform for selling food, it needs to be operating in your area. Check here to see if that’s happening, and get in touch with your local Open Food Network instance. If there isn’t an Open Food Network operating in your area, we can support you starting one.
Our governance
Our global network of local instances operates as a collective of affiliates, working together as defined in our global pledge.
Oversight of governance and finance is provided by our not-for-profit organisation, the Open Food Foundation. Governance and finance is managed by our Governance and Finance circle, which draws from , which reports to the board of the Open Food Foundation.
Case studies
All around the world, Open Food Network is providing tools and resources that help community food enterprises thrive.