Lewes District Food Partnership is delighted to introduce Holly, a student at the University of Sussex, who has joined us for her Global Work Experience placement. Throughout Good Food East Sussex month, Holly has been coming along to different events, workshops and drop-ins. In her final guest post, Holly reflects back on the Lewes District Food and Climate Summit.
We were lucky enough to be able to host a Food & Climate summit on the 9th of October to focus on strategies for building new food movements. Our main aims were to focus on food resilience, sustainability and dignified food movements that are accessible to all.
We welcomed everyone with and opening session. The atmosphere was amazing as we were able to showcase sustainable eating with a vegan lunch that was cooked by our amazing SCDA Community Kitchen. Proceeding this we had the amazing Stef Lake give a talk about the summits goals and how to achieve these.
By hosting these talks we were able to bring attention to the importance of building food partnerships all whilst maintaining dignity in our food movement.
We then hosted a panel that highlighted the various successes that we as a community have had in cultivating a good food environment. We drew focus on the importance of community and collaboration to foster an environment where we can all achieve our main missions. By hearing different success stories that all varied greatly in subject manner, the importance of climate rang true throughout, showcasing the need to focus on climate and sustainability.
We then had various breakout rooms featuring different hosts that heals various talks including:
BRITE Box. This workshop was an interactive session to hear about addressing food insecurity and building resilience/encouraging you people to develop healthy relationships with food through innovative meal-kits provided weekly via primary schools
Introduction to food ladders. This workshop focused on the concept of food ladders to help rethink what is needed to build a resilient, local community food sector in Lewes District
Our food Our future. This breakout room featured the voice of young people, giving them the space to come together and tackle issues head on.
Plant-Based cooking and Nutrition. This breakout room was an interactive cooking class/ Q&A that features vegan recipes that people could use for daily life.
Toolkit for Dignified Food Support. This workshop focused on how to enhance food banks, community cafes and supermarket collaborations that promoted dignity
This summit overall shared everyone sense of community and spirit when looking at food and climate. The highlight on collective action is vital for new ideas and reimagining the future of food.
For more of a taste of the day, check out the video of the day below.