Steering Group

Anne-Meike Fechter is am a social science researcher based at the University of Sussex, working on grassroots actions in development and aid in the Global South and North.

Anthony Davison is a 5th generation farmer from Bedfordshire. He set up website BigBarn in 2001 to reconnect consumers with their local food producers to encourage trade and communication. The site now covers the whole of the UK gets 5,000 visitors per day and has 9,000 local food producers on its Local Food Map. BigBarn allows any website to share initiatives and have the local food map so everyone can add to the map, encourage trade and share income.

Dinah Lee Morgan is a director of Lewes Climate Hub. She is passionate about the relationship between people and environment as expressed in the buddhist principle Esho Funi. She has worked empowering communities for many years.

Elaine Macaninch teaches nutrition at Brighton and Sussex Medical school and UCL Medical school, is nutrition lead for Culinary Medicine UK and maintains a clinical role as a Registered Dietitian, specialising in diabetes in pregnancy. In addition, she leads the UK Nutrition Implementation Coalition and is currently doing a PhD focusing on Nutrition insecurity. She has published papers on the gaps in nutrition education for medical students Nutrition inequalities and COVID-19 and helped to write the new nutrition curriculum for medical doctors.

Gemma McFarlane is the chair of Sharing Skills CIC in Seaford. She worked as a chef and gardener and feels it’s important for everyone to know how to grow and cook good food.

James Gardiner is Operations Director of Education Health & Wellbeing CIC and co-founder of Future Folk Sussex Mutual Home Ownership Society. He is a change champion, advisor and policy writer, post humanist process thinker, researcher in education, learner and leader in transformation principles, philosopher and student – working to uphold the principles of social justice, equity and environmental sustainability. James believes that nutrition is an integral process of life, developing and in-depth understanding of its crucial role within our ecosystem supports our wellbeing.

Jane Perry uses her background in social research to support a range of organisations, big and small, to imagine, enact and reflect on new responses to poverty and welfare in the UK. She is also involved in practical activism, as a founding trustee of a local community response to food insecurity in Lewes.

Johnny Denis is cabinet member for communities and customers at Lewes District Council. He is a fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and has previously led sustainable food and health programmes and teams across the South East.

Kathy Martin is a Principal Lecturer in Nutrition at the School of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Brighton.

Lucie Simon from Eat Fresh and Feel Good, is a BANT registered nutritional therapist, retreat chef and recipe developer. Lucie champions fresh, local, seasonal, plant-focused food, and runs nutrition and cooking workshops for various groups within the community.

Matthew Bird is Cabinet Member for Sustainability at Lewes District Council. His professional career has been in sustainability, energy and climate change and he has worked locally on local fuel and food poverty projects.

Ruby Makepeace-Somerville is a Food Security Development Worker at SCDA, working on a number of community food projects and supporting with the development of Lewes District Food Partnership. She is also the co-ordinator at Fitzjohns Foodbank in Lewes. 

Ruth O’Keeffe is a trustee of several charities operating on Landport in Lewes and a Town and District Councillor in the town.

Stef Lake is the community development & health programme manager at Sussex Community Development Association. She is chair of Lewes District Food Partnership.

Sue Fleming is chair of trustees for Green Cuisine trust, a charity that explores our relationship to food, encouraging ways of growing and eating that nourishes people and the planet.

Vince Kelly is a lecturer in culinary arts at Westminster Kingsway College