Anna Card is a Health Improvement Specialist within East Sussex County Council’s Public Health team, she is a registered UK Public Health Practitioner and specialises in the following areas; physical activity, healthy eating and food, healthy weight, and promoting and utilising whole system approaches to create change.   

Emily O’Brien is a Green Party Councillor and Cabinet Member for Climate, Nature & Food Systems at Lewes District Council. She is also the Green Party’s spokesperson on Food, Agriculture & Rural Welfare, Deputy Chair of the Local Government Association’s People & Places Board (for non-metropolitan areas). She has worked for many years supporting food partnerships and food systems approaches including on the national Sustainable Food Places programme.

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.

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.

Jo Wunsch –is a Specialist Advisor in Sustainability for Lewes and Eastbourne Councils and supports the delivery of Lewes District Councils Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy. 

Katherine Finnegan – awaiting bio

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

Kerry Brown – awaiting bio

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 has over 20 years’ experience working in sustainability, climate change and fuel poverty, working for several local authorities and managing Climate Southeast. After being elected as a Lewes District Councillor he was Cabinet Member for Sustainability from 2019 to 2023 and is currently a Lewes Town Councillor and Mayor of Lewes. Matthew works for the Sussex Wildlife Trust as Climate Lead, OVESCo as an Active Travel Champion and Community Energy South as Climate Literacy Lead. He is a Charted Environmentalist and director of both Love Our Ouse and Get Bikery. 

Miemie Neethling-Taylor is the director of Higher Education at Plumpton College. She is involved in sustainability and community initiatives at the College and uses her research on belonginess to inform higher education practices.  

Nir Halfon is assistant curriculum manager for horticulture at Plumpton College. Previous to working at Plumpton College, Nir was a grower and farm director at Old Plawhatch Farm, a community owned farm near Sharpthorne in Sussex. He holds a master’s degree in environmental and energy studies and a diploma in Permaculture design. He is passionate about local, agroecological food systems. 

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. 

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