ACTION AREAS · FOUR WORKING AREAS
Northumberland Can Feed Northumberland is a broad collaborative initiative. Within it, four Action Areas look at specific parts of the local food system. Their work feeds the wider effort.
The January 2026 strategic action planning workshop grouped local priorities into these four areas. They are established working areas, not fixed mandates — their detailed scope and membership are still developing, and ideas are being tested rather than treated as settled.
Land & production
Land, Production & Stewardship
Whether people who want to farm here can get access to land, keep it productive, and pass it on.
The group is looking at farmland access and cost, farm succession as a generation retires, and the stewardship of soil and water.
Food economy & infrastructure
Food Economy & Infrastructure
What makes it hard for many small and mid-sized producers to sell to larger local buyers.
The group is exploring which storage, processing, aggregation and logistics already exist, and what — if anything — is missing once demand is clearer. No facility has been approved, sited or funded.
Food access & wellbeing
Food Access, Security, Health & Community Well-being
How food access, food security and health connect to the wider food system.
The group is looking at whether people who need good food can get it affordably and with dignity, and at the role of community organizations, schools and food-access programs.
Leadership & policy
Leadership, Policy & Coordination
How public decisions — procurement, planning, coordination between the county and its municipalities — shape local food.
The group is looking at which procurement and planning rules help or hinder local producers, and at how the overall work is coordinated.
The four areas are not sequential and not ranked. They are four views of the same system, and progress in one usually depends on progress in another. Each area is intended to have a small group of people with direct experience or interest, aiming at practical actions rather than long-range plans, and contributing what they learn back to the wider coalition.
To be confirmed
The fastest way to contribute what you know about Northumberland's food system — including about any of these areas — is the food-system survey.
Interested in one particular Action Area specifically? You can also tell us which one → without joining a committee or endorsing any proposal.