What is My Food Community?
My Food Community is a network for good food champions to learn, connect and take action.
It is a programme of activities to bring together people who champion good food – food that is good for climate, nature and health.
My Food Community is designed to inspire, enable and support you to:
- Build your knowledge, access networks and gain resources to organise impactful good food activities
- Connect with others who champion good food – in your community and across the UK
- Take action to lead positive change around good food in your community
Who is My Food Community for?
My Food Community is for you if you want to, or already, champion food that is good for people and the planet.
You could be a good food champion without realising it.
My Food Community is open to professionals and formal or informal volunteers from across the UK who want to make a different with others in their community and take action around good food.
This could mean anything from organising activities that bring people together around good food (like growing, cooking, and sharing food), to campaigning to improve the lives of people in your community and their experience of food. To name just a few examples, you might be involved in a mutual aid food distribution group, manage a local food bank or organise a community fridge.
What is included in My Food Community?
Launching in September 2021 and running until summer 2022, the programme will take place mainly virtually/online to bring people from across the UK together. There is no cost for you to take part.
My Food Community focuses on learning and personal development, connecting with others and the wider good food movement, and ‘championing good food’ to take community action on food that’s good for climate, nature and health. It includes:
- Learning together as a cohort of good food champions and in smaller groups
- Connecting as a cohort and to the wider good food movement
- Learning individually and through self-reflection
- Taking action around good food and leading change with your community
We are working with our national partners and Koreo – a learning consultancy specialising in leadership for social change – to bring My Food Community to you.
Am I eligible to take part?
We welcome and support people with different levels of experience in leading others to take action around good food. We know that many people who create positive change in their communities may not see themselves as ‘leaders’ or ‘champions’. So long as you have the desire, passion and commitment to take action, and are open and willing to learn and share with others, then My Food Community could be for you.
You will need to demonstrate the following to be eligible for My Food Community:
- Passion and commitment to being a good food champion and creating positive change in your community through good food.
- Experience or desire to lead or organise others in your community to take action around good food in the next year.
- Desire and ability to put what you learn into practice, to increase your reach and impact as a good food champion in the next year.
- Open and willing to learn and share with and from others in My Food Community.
- Willing and able to participate in a mainly virtual/online programme which requires active participation and engagement.
- Commitment to dedicating at least 5 hours per month to group activity and self-guided learning, from September 2021 to June 2022.
- You must be aged 18 or above to take part.
How can I register my interest?
There are two ways for people to join My Food Community. You can register your interest directly or you can nominate someone else that you think would be suitable.
You can register your interest or nominate somebody through this short online form.
Register your interest directly
Please complete this online form as soon as you can and before 9am on Monday 12th July 2021. The form asks for your details and short answers to a few questions about why you want to take part and how My Food Community could help you.
Nominating somebody
Please complete this online form as soon as you can and before 9am on Friday 2nd July 2021. The form asks for your details and the details of the person you want to nominate. We will contact them to see if they want to register their interest in taking part.
Please contact us at myfoodcommunity@soilassociation.org if you have any questions.
We accept applications in Welsh and where resources are specifically relevant to Wales they will be provided in Welsh. As we are working with a range of partners from across the UK to deliver My Food Community, we are not able to guarantee that all programme materials will be available in Welsh.
Who else is involved in My Food Community?
Through My Food Community you will benefit from the expertise and networks of our national partners: Eden Project Communities; Food Sense Wales; The Royal Voluntary Service; Linking Generations; and Generations Working Together.
In partnership with Koreo, we will support you to explore your own leadership and the many different ways of making things happen in communities.
Koreo is a learning consultancy dedicated to imagining and building a better world. A small dedicated team of learning designers, producers, facilitators & coaches, they partner with people, organisations & communities to create learning spaces that help us all rise to the urgent demands of the 21st century. Since 2004 they have worked right across UK civil society; working alongside leaders in communities (the Community Leadership Academy, Civic Futures), supporting household name charities to shift culture towards learning and transformation (Mind, Crisis, the Health Foundation), and bringing together collaborative networks across organisational, sectoral and geographic boundaries (2027, Charityworks, Change100).
