By Christopher Yap, Selina Treuherz, and Rebecca Wells
Over the last year, FixOurFood has been working in collaboration with ShefFood, the local food partnership for Sheffield, to develop more inclusive approaches to local food policy. For us, the idea of inclusive food policymaking means understanding and deconstructing barriers to participation in food policymaking; it means acknowledging and celebrating diversity and difference in the city; and it means supporting access to healthy and sustainable food for all.
This collaboration builds on our previous experience of co-developing the Local Food Action Plan for Sheffield, launched in July 2023. The plan was an example of ‘bottom-up policymaking’ in practice; it is an action-oriented document to complement the local food strategy developed by Sheffield City Council. Development of the plan involved almost 100 organisations across the public and private sectors, and civil society. Yet the plan was only a
partial representation of the full diversity of the city.
Our current collaboration began as an exploration of the how of inclusive local food policy: how can local food policymakers, partnerships and councils enhance participation in local policymaking and ensure that food policy delivers for every community in the city? It has since expanded to re-examine the idea of ‘inclusion’ itself, recognising that beyond efforts to make food policy making inclusive, it is vital to ask inclusion by whom, in what, and to what end? Outcomes from this work should have direct relevance for local food policymakers as well as researchers and practitioners engaged in public policy more broadly.
In accordance with our approach to developing the Local Food Action Plan, we have taken an action research approach that aims to learn by doing. Over the past six months we have spent time with organisations that are working at the front lines of food provision, community support, and food culture. We have learned from the Hadfield Institute about vital work supporting migrant communities to access emergency food provision. We have learned from the United Women’s Affiliation about dedicated efforts to provide culturally appropriate food through food banks and the NHS. And through conversations with inspirational partners at SOAR, ISRAAC Somali Community Association, Dryden Food Pantry, Aspiring Communities Together, Firvale Community Hub, and Longley 4 Greens, we have learned about the importance of strengthening local connections while engaging strategically at the city-level.
On 28 th August, FixOurFood and ShefFood will be co-hosting an event to celebrate a year of food systems action. The event will include a panel discussion on generating the conditions to enhance collaboration and cooperation across sectors for food systems transformation in Sheffield and the wider South Yorkshire region. Through this work we hope to better understand and help create the conditions for more inclusive food systems transformations in Sheffield and the wider Yorkshire region.