Webinar: Food Justice in Practice – building the right to food in communities
20 October @ 13:00 – 14:00
In the UK, millions of people cannot reliably access healthy, sustainable and affordable food. In communities across the country, people are not waiting for the system to change. They are building their own responses through community kitchens, growing projects, food co-ops and campaigns that treat good food as something everyone has a right to.
We opened this series by setting out why justice has to be at the centre of food system transformation. This month we look at what that means in practice. Dee Woods has spent over 25 years working for food justice in communities, through Granville Community Kitchen in South Kilburn, her campaigning for the right to food, and the Landworkers’ Alliance. She will talk about what food justice looks like when communities lead it, and what it takes to sustain.
How do communities create fairer access to good food, and what gets in the way? What can national policy learn from what already works locally? And how do we make sure the people most affected by the food system have a real say in changing it?
About Dee:
Dee Woods is an Earth Wisdom Keeper, Afroecologist, food and farming actionist, broadcaster, writer and community organiser whose work is shaped by Black feminist praxis, Pan African internationalism, and African Traditional and Indigenous Caribbean spiritualities. With a lifetime of working in and alongside communities, she has advanced food justice through the intertwined struggles for food sovereignty, reparations, climate land, gender, racial and healing justice.
As co-founder and director of Granville Community Kitchen and Farm Hub in South Kilburn, she brings together good food, growing, political education, organising and collective care as a living practice of liberation. Dee co-edited A People’s Food Policy, co-founded the African Caribbean Heritage Food Network, served as Western Europe focal point within the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism part of the UN Committee on World Food Security, and contributes to several university research advisory groups. A woman of many headwraps, she carries ancestral knowledge and community-rooted power into local, national and international spaces.
About Angelina (chair):
Angelina Sanderson Bellamy is Co-founder and Director at Root and Reason, and Professor of Food Systems at UWE Bristol. She has led on numerous projects to improve sustainability, health and equity within the food system, both in the UK and internationally. Angelina co-chairs the Bristol Good Food 2030 Partnership Steering Group and sits on the boards of Food Policy Alliance Cymru, Food Sense Wales, and Riverside Market Gardens. She has previously worked at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
About this webinar series:
This webinar is part of a monthly series run by Root and Reason (formerly AFN Network+) which explores the transformation of the UK agri-food system with leading movers and shakers. Expect deep and varied insight from across the sector, including farmers, scientists, policy analysts, community leaders, retailers, politicians, businesses and health professionals.