Brighton and Hove Food Partnership

I work in the Sustainable Development Coordination Unit where one of my roles is to make the University of Brighton ‘greener’ and more socially sustainable, which involves engaging students and staff in grassroots initiatives and encouraging people to think of the university as a place where they can effect change. The idea of becoming a more sustainable university also inherently calls for breaking down barriers, valuing different types of knowledge and building collaborations to achieve the change needed – and, as the university evolves within a broader social and geographical context, it only makes sense to tap into existing energy, projects and activities taking place around us.

I have a personal passion for sustainable and local food, and in the past ten years, this area of work has also been flourishing in Brighton & Hove – so what better place to start! A cocktail of circumstances led me to work with the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership as the main community partner in the first round of On Our Doorstep projects: a group of interested students and staff in the Sustainability Action Network held the first ever local food ‘market’ on campus, creating some initial links with producers and sustainable food campaigning organisations; Active Student worked with our Moulsecoomb campus neighbours, linking students and local residents through recycling and waste projects; and there was a growing interest in local food projects in the city, especially with the start of the Harvest Brighton & Hove project.

The aim of the project was to engage students and staff members at our Brighton campuses in issues around local and sustainable food – through growing, preparing or indeed eating. This involved a two-way process: opening the door for local organisations and producers to come onto campus and developing channels for the university community to get more involved in local initiatives. This led to several successful events, including a film screening at the university during the Brighton & Hove Food Festival; workshops on ‘loving leftovers’; local food and craft markets; work days at local community gardens; mini-seed funds for small community groups in Moulsecoomb and Bevendean; and the setting-up of the University of Brighton Food Co-op.

The project has led to people getting involved in new activities and created synergies with programmes such as the university’s staff volunteering scheme. In the past year, the Food Partnership has given advice to staff in Falmer, who started a community allotment and helped students and staff start growing edible plants in offices and communal areas in Moulsecoomb. The Food Co-op Society also continues to grow, attracting more members from the local community and improving access to healthy, sustainable and locally grown food.

I would encourage colleagues in the university and community collaborators to be inspired by the potential that engagement activities have in such partnership work as very often these seek to have a positive impact on all those involved. My hope is that this short story of partnership working not only speaks to those who are thinking about different kinds of collaborations with the university, e.g. working with researchers as well as campus ‘activists’, but also to the importance of exploring the relevance of action research or other methods that embrace a collaborative relationship between research and community engagement.

Elona Hoover

Research Officer Sustainable Development Coordination Unit

http://www.brighton.ac.uk/sdecu