Doing good through food, together.
Who are the drivers of change in the food system? How do they make an impact at the grassroots level? Can these changemakers, who often work in isolation, join hands to support each other? And how can we, as individuals, help shift the needle?
The Locavore’s Organisation Partnership Program brings together organisations across India that are committed to doing good through food. From combating hunger and addressing food waste, to working on gender equity and farmer sovereignty, each of our partners addresses critical issues that plague the food system.
Through this program, we actively engage with organisations working at the intersection of food and social impact to understand the challenges they encounter and the ways in which they deal with them. We explore purposeful, empathetic approaches to find solutions—such as fundraising campaigns, capacity building workshops, and raising awareness through social media—that are impactful, and rooted in genuine care for people and the environment.
At The Locavore, collaboration has always been central to our mission of breaking down the intricacies of our food system. Over the years, we’ve partnered with homegrown food producers who have adopted the practices of sustainability, transparency, and traditional knowledge in their work. We extend the same spirit of collaboration to our Organisation Partnership Program. Our aim is to establish a collaborative network where our partners can initiate an open dialogue, share resources, and work together on meaningful projects that sustain and improve our food systems.
MEET OUR ORGANISATION PARTNERS
Earth4ever Conservation Foundation
Working closely with smallholder farmers in Maharashtra, Earth4ever Conservation Foundation blends regenerative farming practices and indigenous knowledge to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis, ensure food security, and aid income generation.
NESFAS: Safeguarding and Revitalising Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems
Working closely with farmers, weavers, fisherfolk, foragers, local entrepreneurs, and community cooks in Meghalaya and Nagaland, NESFAS is conserving Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems and its diversity.
Sahjeevan: Creating Livelihoods for Traditional Pastoral Communities in Gujarat
Established in 1991, Sahjeevan is a not-for-profit organisation working with marginalised pastoralist communities inhabiting the Kachchh, Surendranagar, and Rajkot districts in Gujarat to conserve biodiversity and build sustainable livelihoods.
Network for Conserving Central India
The work undertaken by NCCI brings together farmers, researchers, and conservationists to conserve forested areas in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
InSeason Fish: Helping Consumers Eat Seafood Sustainably
InSeason Fish is a Chennai-based organisation helping Indians eat seafood sustainably through research, community partnerships, fish-market walks, and a seasonal seafood calendar, connecting consumers to choices that support healthier oceans and coastal livelihoods.
WASSAN: Managing Natural Resources in Rainfed Ecologies
Working closely with farmers, research institutions, and civil-society organisations, WASSAN is preserving natural resources across four Indian states.
ATREE: Conserving the Environment Through Scientific Research and Community Support
A non-profit organisation adopts community-based and scientific approaches to address environmental challenges across India.
Bhoomi Ka: Supporting Smallholder Farmers and Ecopreneurs Across India
Bhoomi Ka, a network of smallholder farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and ecopreneurs, aims to drive positive change in our food system by promoting sustainable agricultural techniques and consumption practices that prioritise ecological balance and social equity.
Urmul Seemant Samiti: Championing Livelihoods in the Border Villages of Western Rajasthan
This not-for-profit organisation not only advocates for the rights and livelihoods of those inhabiting villages along the desert landscape of the Indo-Pakistan border in Rajasthan, but also addresses the challenges endured by its local communities.
Khaana Chahiye Foundation: A Pandemic-Induced Initiative Still Combating Hunger in Mumbai
Khaana Chahiye Foundation began as a citizen-led crisis-management operation focussed on combating hunger in Mumbai during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, it is an NGO that continues to feed those in need within the city through community kitchens and grocery kits.
Meaningful Connections and Collaborations
While there are plenty of organisations that painstakingly work to tackle the various issues that plague our food systems—from cultural preservation to waste management—they are far too vast and complex to take on in isolation. We aim to build a community of organisations that can support each other by sharing ideas and resources, and make lasting impact.
Identify and Tackle Challenges
Through our Organisation Partner Community, we hope to identify and understand common challenges such as improving access to food in marginalised regions or dealing with the environmental impact of their operations, as well as figure out ways to combat them together, through workshops, on-ground interventions, and focus-group discussions.
Document Impactful Work
We aim to create a repository of organisations driving change in the food space for those curious to learn more about these changemakers. Through our storytelling, we introduce our growing audience to grassroots-level organisations working with communities in different capacities. Some of these include initiatives that promote local seed-saving practices, a cooperative ensuring fair trade for farmers, and an NGO combating hunger in Mumbai.
Understanding Impact
We often grapple with measuring impact. Impact can take many forms—social, environmental, economic—but understanding it is essential for any organisation. We aim to understand what impact means to various organisations, and how they make sense of it because the way we define impact is important—both internally, and for our stakeholders (whether this is communities we work with or our funders)—and it guides us to seek the right direction in our efforts.
Past Collaborations With Organisations
Fundraising for Khaana Chahiye Foundation
We partnered with Khaana Chahiye Foundation, a citizen-led operation combating hunger in Mumbai, to help raise a total of rupees 3.8 lakhs for their community kitchens in April 2023, and amplified their ongoing fundraising efforts in August 2024. The funds were used to improve their kitchen facilities, and serve thousands of meals to marginalised communities across the city.
Fundraising for Mazdoor Kitchen
The Locavore organised a two-month-long campaign in August and September 2023 to raise funds for Mazdoor Kitchen to deliver a total of 23,624 meals and 30 ration kits to to feed over 15,500 daily-wage workers across Delhi NCR. We also amplified their impact through our social media channels. Read more about our work with Mazdoor Kitchen here.
Millet Revival Project with Rainmatter Foundation
The Millet Revival Project is an ongoing collaboration between The Locavore and Rainmatter Foundation that aims to reinvigorate India’s relationship with millets, combining in-depth research, community engagement, and impactful storytelling to highlight the grain’s health and ecological benefits. Read more about the project here.
Capacity Building with Bhoomi Ka
The Locavore organised a series of four workshops on storytelling and content creation for social media platforms for ecopreneurs. These sessions focussed on the fundamentals of social media marketing for food businesses, leveraging tools like WhatsApp for Business, and involving local communities to tell a story effectively.
We’re always eager to integrate more organisations who, like us, want to create positive change in our food system. If you’re a social-impact organisation based in India, reach out to us at connect@thelocavore.in. Let’s work together to make a meaningful impact.