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We held two Policy workshops with members of the community.

One was at Old Boat cafe in Brighton and the other was at Vallance centre in Hove.

There seemed to be a good turnout of participants at both workshops.

Participants were welcomed, asked to complete, consent, ethics and equality forms and understand they can withdraw at any time.

We sat around a table at both events and one the wall in front we had 3 large posters that had headings that said,

Future on the 1st, Changes on the 2nd and Recommendations on the 3rd poster.

Participants seemed to like the photo method where they could look at photos related to food and tell a story about why they chose the photo.

We spoke about what policy is and what policy's are out there.

Some conversations were a little unrelated to policy but this could be because policy is quite a nuanced topic.

Overall good turn out, possibly more to be done here?

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Safeguard and boundaries training w Jo Wren - Grow Project

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Safeguard and boundaries training w Jo Wren - Grow Project

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This was a training day with my fellow CR's, Shelley and a couple of other colleagues form BHFP. Beautiful scenery from the windows thought I remember the room being very cold.

The speaker was engaging and recognised we were chilly and had us moving about which helped.

We spoke about what safeguarding is and who might need safeguarding.

I learnt anyone might need safeguarding, that its ok not to know the answer all the time and tell someone above me in my line if I have concerns. However if there is immediate danger or crime call the police.

We talked about professional boundaries within BHFP

We learnt some good lines about how to respond to people talking about sensitive subjects.

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Community Organising Training with Paris with Citizens UK

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Community Organising Training with Paris with Citizens UK

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This was a full day training in the conference room at Community Base.

There was about 8 of us taking part and we found out that community organising involves social change.

They helped us to understand people power and gave some strategies that could be used.

However I do feel some of what we learnt went against what we do as CR's and in BHFP, for example the 1-2-1's where we have to divulge personal information.

I felt the House Meeting technique was quite good.

Interesting day, some new things learnt.

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Community Researcher Meet with Elaine Swan

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Community Researcher Meet with Elaine Swan

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We met online via teams. The CR's, the co-ordinator Shelley and Elaine Swan Academic. Elaine is a Feminist food researcher- something I'd never heard of before.

We spoke about how most community researchers have some kind of lived experience and "privilege" of knowing the community projects and people. More than the academics.

We spoke about knowing our own bias, the culture of our community. Knowing your own relationship to food and then understanding the local communities relationship to food. Also understanding ones own hot buttons or triggers and working through them before they arise, I liked this idea, feels very prepared.

I liked the way Elaine, spoke, she kept it interesting and easy to follow.

We spoke about interviews and focus groups however these settings can create social desireability bias. Heard a new word dialogic.

Helpful to share own flaws with food relationships.

Set and setting is important for studies and focus group ie ecological validity. does it translate to the real world?

A good example of a way around this was in Tower Hamlets where they went on shopping trips with the participants in the shopping basket analysis and when they went into the participants homes for a cook along, this is very immersive and provided rich detail.

Whats next for Brighton how can we be more immersive and provide richer data needed?

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Initially, I had some trouble connecting on my laptop, my zoom app is out of date and it says it might need IT to sort, usually, I can use a browser page.

I then managed to download the Zoom app on my phone and finally join the webinar by 10.05 am.

interesting :

Councils nuanced and complicated. Some councillors are like volunteers or civil servants.

Another lady was called Sophia and that confused me a bit haha.

Policy and strategy is embedded in what we do at BHFP

not suprising that policy change can take several years its just a bit long.

Not sure what questions I have at this point.

BHFP work is mostly done at the local level but we also do some work at regional and national level too.

I liked "if food was a drug it would be prescribed for depression"

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Policy Workshop catch up and fish output edit 06/11/23

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Policy Workshop catch up and fish output edit 06/11/23

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Today we were with Katerina and we were thinking about the policy workshop findings.

This was a meeting after we had all analysed our notes.

We spoke about our general observations and reflections on how the workshops went.

We spoke about the different ways of note taking which I thought was reaffirming.

We spoke about some good things to take forward as a researcher such as reflections straight after workshops and being more descriptive in notes.

We agreed that the first activity felt a good one to start with, it helped participants to break the ice and have some choice.

I personally found so many different handwritings on the post it notes hard to read and different camera qualities.

We all spoke about how some people had loud voices or strong oppinions and we go round each person to give everyone a chance.

It was also said that it would be good going forward to explain how someone says something and interpret it. To also think about ways of taking the research further in the future.

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Cr meeting to talk about policy workshop write ups and get feedback.

We also discussed transition papers.

This workshop was useful see the other CR's writing style.

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Biomarkers chat for one hour.

Discussing what to talk about with our local connections and who they are.

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CR meet with Ali G - to talk about policies

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Into to local government and policy pre session - Cr meeting

Was a bit confusing but by the end I could understand.

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This was a CR meet online with Jesse, we spoke out the future, that Jesse is leaving and we will have 2 new research fellows.

Sad to see Jesse go, its been great to work with him and his research style.

Looking forward to meeting the new research fellows. I wonder what they will be like and how it will shape our work going forward.

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This was a CR meeting in person in the office.

We worked on our policy notes, our analysis and reflections.

This was a very helpful session to see other CR's work and to see the patterns that started to form.

Themes emerged and helped to narrow down the key points for the policy brief, this I found particularly interesting, I thought it would have been more analysis to find the themes but they came up while we were talking.

Later on in the session we used our laptops to work on final edits of the fish output. It's been a long task so far but I am happy with the finished product.

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For the last few sessions we have been working as CR's towards producing a policy brief.

This week we worked on merging our policy notes from images of all our notes (CR's + Shelley's) and from the post it notes images from the policy workshops.

We then spent some time writing up a document of our interpretation of what we analysed and created a document of main themes over all. This was a continuation from the session with Katerina.

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This week we worked on defining our communities.

We each have a different community that we are connected to through food accessible pathways, such as low cost markets, food banks or the like.

We were tasked with searching the physical boundaries of the area, the demographics, the history and creating a full image of our own commnunities.

I learned more history about my own area Moulsecoomb, I found it difficult to find upto date data for some parts but I acknowledge that finding that kind of data may take some time.

This task is to support the policy brief going forward.

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For the first part of the session Maria and I worked on finishing some of the Miro wicked problem task, which is a research method Jesse presented to us a while ago.

There were some parts we found easier to think up issues and problems within the network of fish and beans.

The easier ones were ones such as residents and local community and social and psychological problems/issue. The ones that seemed more difficult were the industry specific ones such as the Newhaven Fishing develpment and the Brighton and Newhaven Fish sales. Though with a bit of research we managed to find the information online which helped us to fill in any where that was blank.

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Meeting new academic Jess Horne and Policy brief reading 

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Meeting new academic Jess Horne and Policy brief reading 

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Todays session was more of a run down of how the chickpea workshops are going to go. I have more of a clear picture of this.

We spoke about focus groups which I knew from studying at university. Though I'm not sure if I have been in an intentional focus group but some work we have done in the past with BHFP could be considered under the focus group umbrella term.

I liked that each method for research or note taking is directly linked to the work we are doing and examples helps it feel tangible.

We decided on our aims for the sessions and we created a list of questions with Jessica putting them in to themes.

This feels like a more collaborative process with the CR's and academic than we have done before.

The roles are also beginning to be clearly defined and I feel confident that I will know my role well when it comes to the session.

I did feel that being in Brighton the sustainable aspects of chickpeas will come up as with the vegan use of chickpeas will also be brought up. It might not happen but there are a lot of vegans in Brighton.

We also spoke about ethics and considerations and I think it's imporant to let people know that its ok if you don't eat chickpeas or don't know how to cook. ect.

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This was an in person session, at the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership HQ.

It was so nice to see everyone in person, we all hadn't had the chance to meet face to face, yet.

We started by focusing on the main plan for the day and the timings. We decided that a semi-structured approach would be preferred. We settled on our roles for the day and discussed who would be doing what.

We also discussed consent forms and I agreed with everyone that it would be more simple to have the parent sign the consent form and then include the children's names and ages on the same form.

After this meeting I felt more clear about the running of the day, itself, and what is expected of me.

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Today it was time for the Chickpea workshop.

The day went great, some yummy food. Once participants warmed up, they were all keen to learn, cook, share stories and swap tips.

It was a very informative day for all.

I was suprised to learn about sprouted chickpea and that garam flour is used in cakes too.

I was interested and intrigued by the end and how the group had formed an idea for a kit. Some sort of recipe kit like a gusto or a mobile van with healthy snacks.

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CR online meet Reflection on Chickpea Workshop

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CR online meet Reflection on Chickpea Workshop

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We met online and ran through how the day went well.

We all worked well together and bounced off each other. Each of us got different perspectives of the day. Which was great when we all came together and filled things in. The food eating was a big hit with the participants.

We discussed what could go better. Less dominant voices being able to speak. More discussion on supply and product innovation.

We spoke about what might happen next and we wrote our findings.

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Today's session was an online session on Teams.

We started by re-reading our roles and mulling over whether we felt like we'd successfully taken on the role or if there were something's we could of done better to fulfil the role of either participant observer or non-participant observer.

I took the role of non-participant observer and felt like I took on the role and a little bit step outside the role to ask a participant a question about what they were doing. Also, I added extra sensory bits that I wasn't meant to but as someone who has an autistic condition I usually pick up on some sensory things right away, such as noise. Though being a non-participant observer allowed me to have a good view of everyone to take pictures and videos.

We also went through each of our notes from the Chickpea workshop. We looked over any points that could be descriptively expanded. I struggled with this a bit because I had a birds eye view and was only able to ask questions when there was a free moment. Sometimes I didn't see who said what because I was over the other side of the room.

Also I'm good at reading people but not necessarily what they are thinking or feeling, so I can be quite matter of fact, if I guess I feel I may get it wrong or be assumptive/judgemental. I would like to try and be more descriptive with how people feel.

Then we spoke about the future of our projects. We spoke about fish and what that looks like, not surprised to hear it's been put on the back burner, it didn't feel very tangible in terms of delivering something to the public.

We also spoke about beans and where we are with that. Then we spoke about how we will be moving forward with veg which was news to me but not unsurprising.

We also talked about availability and how important it is to be at events which are important to Foodsquals and we each moved around some of our personal life to make it work.

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19/06/24

CR online meet with everyone

Running through academic’s and CR co-production notes and findings for the Chickpea workshop.

Jessica merged our notes and scanned them for themes and findings. Today we are going through this document to further refine this document through co-production.

Filled in any bits that we thought were missing

VEG interviews survey

Discussing and filling out

*when it says portions what do we mean by that?

How much do you spend per week? I had to do some calculations might be better to do per month ei, bag of smoothie mix lasts me 2 weeks, I go to MCM every 2 weeks and the rest I buy at aldi or Sainsburys

For where do you find your food – more than one option should be able to be lcickd

Weekly pop up says to select all that apply but can only select one

Spoke to Shelley and together changed some of the questions

Spoke about how the veg chats/interviews will go

Looked at open and closed questions video and survey bias video

First video confirmed my thoughts about yes and no answered questions. Further confirmed my knowledge from Uni and college (counselling) what I thought about open and closed questions.

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Zoom with Katerina P and Shelley and CR's

This was about our policy work and community research, it was a kind of interview.

It was a link to some other work in a project funded by UKRI which is social innovation for transforming food systems.

We began by talking about our connections to the community and places in the community such a low cost markets or community cafes ect.

We spoke about how we work together, what has gone well, who as Community Researchers, are we connected to, what we have been doing of late and how is CR innovated?

We were asked what is an innovation - something that hasn't been done before and working with the community. It's collaborative.

We spoke about some challeneges we face in community research and some challenges we face as Community Researchers.

It was generally found, with not much suprise to myself, that CR's want more time, more funding, more locations and more CR's. We believe that more could happen at a quicker pace. It's vital work and time can be slow to end goals, this is because we are contstained by time and funding.

Was great to hear that the policy brief we have been working on with Katerina is being uploaded to the University of Sussex policy page. That's exciting, I'm looking forward to reading it.

We finished this section by talking about some key points. I mentioned I think it's key that CR's are different, come from different walks of life, have different skill set and come from different boroughs of the local place.

When we finished this part we moved on to discussing an output for our policy work, that is not academic. We discussed potentially getting a designer in or doing an infographic with some interactive elements or a game. Holly and I talked about an interactive TV programme called Bandersnatch which could work well in this scenario.

Finally we discussed the form for veg surveys and Shelley helped me navigate it.

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This was in-person on the spot surveys.

I went to Patcham to a health and wellness event with Ali from BHFP.

We asked questions about people's veg buying and eating habits.

I was unsure how many people we would actually get to ask as there was a survey table right next to ours. However, we did well and got quite a few interviews done.

It was a hot day and some shade would have been nice.

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Each CR was given two recipe boxes to try out and make for ourselves.

I was sent Cook Away and Riverford Organic Farms boxes.

I wrote a document about my experiences.

Both meals were tasty and I enjoyed the experience.

The Cook Away box was a bit more complicated but more fun.

I think there are some elements from each box that we could take away. Such as the simple design of the Riverford box and the fun elements of the Cook Away box.

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We had a field day where the CR's and Jessica went in to Brighton town centre to do some market research.

We split ourselves in to roles of speaking to the shop managers, taking photos, searching for products and making notes.

We got to around half of the shops we had planned to. We took note of price points, what kind of products were available, how big and busy the shops were ect.

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many options of chickpea products.

I was unsurprised to find out that the most chickpea products happened to be in Taj.

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11/09/24

Today was a meeting with Shelley, Katerina P and my fellow CR's. This was an online meeting on Zoom.

This meeting was abstract in that we discussed potential designs for a creative output for our policy work.

The conversation was a bit stop-and-start and it was a bit difficult to pull ideas out of thin air.

However, I do understand why this meeting was run this way from a co-productive research point of view. In the past, CR's have mentioned that the design process felt like it was decided for us. So this meeting allowed us to be involved in the design aspect. Rather than being told what to do.

We discussed an action pack tool kit, a podcast, different types of games (Choose your own adventure, platform ect), Videos, animations and songs.

In an ideal world I would like to see a choose your own adventure game or video and a action pack tool kit.

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Today was a meeting around co-designing the workshops for chickpea tool kit.

It was online and we ran through what might be expected at the next workshops.

This was a really good session because we were actively making decisions together. Back in last September, we were at the annual assembly and the CR's all mentioned how we would like to be more co-producing together.

Working with Jessica who is also a lecturer has been a welcome change. She is very receptive to what we have to say and willing to work with what we want and what the community wants.

This leads to us as CR's feeling more heard but also adds to the community feeling like they had a part to play and their voices are being amplified.

I'm excited to recruit and work from Moulsecoomb, this is my community and where I feel most comfortable.

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Today was a co-design meeting online with Shelley, CR's and Jessica.

We went through the workshop design and running order. We also discussed the activities and what works and what doesn't work.

We decided on recipes to bring and discussed what we would need for the day.

This felt like a very collaborative project.

I didn't like the videos as a recipe how to, I think it's more like a promo video or a creative output at the end of this part of the research.

I like that we keep the participants in mind when planning the workshops.

This looks set to be a co-design with the participants and us and I think this is going to be good.

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Today was an online Teams meeting for the Healthy Weight Planning Board with local government and leaders in this food and weight related area.

It included schools, womens and mens projects, being active, nutrition and updates of whats been going on and whats happening in the city.

With Shelley, I helped to deliver a 10 minute presentation around our policy workshops and findings.

I was a little nervous but plenty of practice meant that I had a good pace and spoke clearly.

It was great to see how relevant and current our findings are in respect to what's going on in the city.

People seemed to think the findings would be useful to support other projects to come to fruition.

They were also receptive of our recommendations and I am excited and keen to see how the findings help.

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Today was an online meeting regarding writing up notes from the first workshop of three workshops in relation to researching product development for a recipe toolkit for chickpeas. This is stored in the BHFP share point.

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Today was an online meeting with Katerina P, in regards to our policy work and outputs.

We discussed the game element but realised we may not have capacity to take something like that on.

Instead we focused on a toolkit/blue print guide for how to have CR's attached to food partnerships and how that will look.

I struggled a little with the big picture thinking and found I kept focusing on smaller details to include.

I also think it will be good to demonstrate how CR's fit in to a city like Brighton but I am also aware that Brighton is quite a unique city and think there needs to be some room for other cities to tailor it to the way their community is.

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Today was a final recruitment push at Hollingbury Bright Store. It was interesting too see the different ways this store worked compared to St Georges MCM.

We got 1 or 2 keen people.

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Debrief workshop 1 and co design work shop 2

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This was an in-person meeting at the community base, and it was a rehearsal for workshop 2. We would make sure the timings were right and that we all knew what we were doing and what our roles were.

I would be taking more of a facilitator role and I felt a bit nervous but more ready than before.