The Plymouth FoodSEqual project has several strands of work:
- FoodSEqual-health: This is an arm of FoodSEqual run by the University of Reading and University of Plymouth. The aim of Fresh Street Community is for everyone regardless of where they live to be able to get good quality, fresh fruit and vegetables. It is a fruit and vegetable voucher scheme research study which aims to assess what is the most effective way to embed the scheme within local food systems in areas of high deprivation in Reading and Plymouth working with local suppliers and community centres. This scheme is currently up and running in Whitleigh and we are working with Tamar Fresh Ltd who are our fruit and vegetable wholesaler supporting the project.
- The Plymouth Fishfinger: In collaboration with the Whitleigh community, Plymouth, fish was identified as a food commodity for possible innovation and development. The FoodSEqual Plymouth team ran 4 interactive workshops to find out if the community wants or needs a new product, supply chain, or policy around fish. The Plymouth Fishfinger project emerged from these workshops and is a community led pilot project with the aim of co-designing a fishfinger that is both healthy and sustainable - and ensures that local fish remains in the local community – the intention is to try to get this product into the school meal system locally. We are working with Plymouth Fisheries and Seafood Association CIC and Sole of Discretion CIC to deliver this element of FoodSEqual. More info, on the Plymouth Fishfinger.
- Community food researchers: Our community food researchers work with the local FoodSEqual team, based at the University of Plymouth and Food Plymouth CIC, to plan and organise various food and community based events and support FoodSEqual research activities, to find out more about what people in Whitleigh are eating or would like to eat. Being a community food researcher within the FoodSEqual project means being part of a bigger change and there is hope and excitement to see what that change will mean for Whitleigh and Plymouth. Find out more about FoodSEqual's work in Whitleigh. The FoodSEqual team have also written a research paper which critically reviews this way of working.
- Synergy project: In 2023, Dr Clare Pettinger won some additional funding from UKRI to co-lead this national project to explore what 'co-production' looks like for food system transformation. Using a range of exploratory creative methods, this project has successfully mapped and curated the evidence of co-production approaches and how they are being used across seven TUKFS projects – view the Synergy project outline. One of the key outputs from this project is a toolkit for use in other co-production projects:
Access the Synergy project toolkit