FoodSEqual community food researchers: co-producing healthy and sustainable food systems in Plymouth
Empowering communities to drive change in their local food system
Overview
FoodSEqual aims to empower people living in less affluent communities, enabling them to drive change within their local food system through co-innovation of new food products, food supply chains, and food policy frameworks that deliver affordable, healthy and sustainable diets.
Community food researchers (CFRs) have been recruited and trained in Plymouth, Reading, Tower Hamlets, and Brighton and Hove, with the important role of 'bridging the gap' between their communities and FoodSEqual project partners, ensuring local voices remain central to the project and future food system innovations.
People involved
FoodSEqual brings together transdisciplinary research teams, government departments, civil organisations, food businesses, industry partners, and citizens living in disadvantaged communities.
This case study focuses on the research activities of the five CFRs in Whitleigh, Plymouth. The Whitleigh CFRs have varied backgrounds, with strong connections within their communities.
Our community food researchers are the ones going out to speak to the community. They know the community; they know what the community needs.
FoodSEqual researcher
Key project activities
Recruitment of community food researchers
CFRs were recruited through a series of participatory events at a wellbeing hub in Whitleigh ().
Training of community food researchers
A training package covered research skills, ethical practices (such as informed consent and data management) and practicalities of community research (e.g., safeguarding).
Co-design and co-delivery of events
CFRs have organised community food and social events, including regular breakfast meet ups inviting speakers that reflect their interests, a cream tea event, a fruit and vegetable market stall and foraging walks. The team also created a , and visited local wholesalers to learn about fresh food supply chain issues (Food Plymouth, 2023a).
CFRs have co-designed and co-delivered research workshops for local community member and industry partner participants. Workshops have used creative methods, and generated ideas for new
fish products
and innovations in local supply chains (Food Plymouth, 2023d; 2024). CFRs' local knowledge and connections were key to ensuring events were accessible, inclusive, and fun for attendees.
Participatory data analysis
CFRs took part in collaborative participatory data analysis sessions following fish workshops, creating a 'jellyfish' diagram summarising key overarching themes (Food Plymouth 2023d).
Sharing research findings and creative methods
CFRs have shared their experiences and findings with community members, business partners, local MPs and academics through participation in stakeholder events, research newsletters (¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ, 2023) and visual presentations and posters (Food Plymouth, 2023b), and as authors of blog posts (Food Plymouth 2023a, 2023d) and academic journal articles. CFRs have also co-produced a guide to visual and creative methods to create engaging research environments and involve communities in research.
Co-production principles
Relationships
The CFRs meet regularly, with time for social interactions considered important for building relationships and trust. Working together has helped further build team connections:
"Doing these workshops has helped us to become a much stronger team." (Community Food Researcher, FoodSEqual)
"In the long run, FoodSEqual is doing a lot more than improving people’s perspective of food. It’s brought people closer together. It’s built friendships, helped with mental health… It’s doing a hell of a lot more than food." (Community Food Researcher, FoodSEqual)
CFRs are paid an hourly rate and receive expenses for training, workshop co-design and delivery. The team are working together to identify a long-term 'legacy' for CFRs after project funding ends.
"I’m really passionate about the legacy that FoodSEqual will leave, which we’ve already started to work on throughout this year of the project. As a community food researcher, I feel now trained, equipped and enabled to go back into my community, which is my intention, to engage, equip and facilitate other engagement activities for the community beyond the project. That’s what they’ve done for me. That’s what they’ve given me." (Community Food Researcher, FoodSEqual)
Reflection and reflexivity
CFRs and the project team regularly meet, with opportunities to debrief after activities and workshops, to share key learning points, challenges, and reflect on things that worked or did not go well. Co-authored blog posts have also been a helpful tool for aiding reflection.
"There's learning all the time. And I think.. building in that reflection and learning has been really important." (Project team member, FoodSEqual)
Inclusivity
CFRs have been involved in different activities that reflect their diverse interests, personal capacity, learning styles and strengths.
"They are all passionate... they bring with them interests and areas like food, community building… they bring assets with them and skills with them. And I think watching those skills come to the fore I think for me is really exciting and rewarding." (Project team member, FoodSEqual)
Use of novel creative methods is highlighted as key to supporting diverse learning and communication styles within community workshops and community food researcher activities. Communication strategies and workshop or learning materials are also carefully considered to ensure these reflect different preferences and needs (e.g., providing video recordings).
Insights from project collaborators
The CFRs and other members of the project team created a video to detail the skills and interests that they bring to FoodSEqual. The CFRs also describe how their work has helped them to develop new skills and understandings of the food system and the local activities they are involved in:
"It’s hard to describe the progress that has been made…the knowledge that I have gained, the experience that I’ve gained, some of it is built on skills I had had before, and has put it all together, and I’ve learned so much through our training sessions, through our public engagement events." (Community Food Researcher, from Food Plymouth video)
CFRs also reflected on the impact of their involvement in the FoodSEqual project:
"I feel my role is very impactful, because I get to make a real difference with people’s lives by promoting healthy eating and food security. The research we do can lead to positive changes in food systems. We help to empower communities by involving people in the research process. It helps people to be heard in any food related issues. Knowing that my work can lead to better health gives me a strong sense of job satisfaction." (Community Food Researcher, from Food Plymouth video)
Find out more about this project
Related references
Food Plymouth (2022), 'A team of six community food researchers are working with FoodSEqual in Whitleigh, Plymouth', Accessed 8 October 2025.
Food Plymouth (2023a), 'Community Food Research team visit to Tamar Fresh Saltash', Accessed 22 August 2023.
Food Plymouth (2023b), 'Feeding back to the Whitleigh Community about our research and next steps', Accessed 10 October 2025.
Food Plymouth (2023c), 'FoodSEqual community food researchers panel discussion. International Women's Day 2023 at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ', Accessed 22 August 2023.
Food Plymouth (2023d), 'FoodSEqual Fish workshops Plymouth, blog by Laura Dunn Community Researcher', Accessed 22 August 2023.
Food Plymouth (2024), 'FoodSEqual Community Food Researchers share their research methods at the Voyage of Discovery Event', Accessed 22 April 2025.
Food Plymouth (2025), 'Public engagement stories from FoodSEqual Plymouth'. Accessed 12 August 2025.
Gardiner, H., Pettinger, C., Haslam-Lucas, A., Diouri, B., Ruminska, J., Dunn, L., Ashton, Y., Hunt, L, and Hickson, M. (2025) How can participatory research processes contribute to food system transformation. Exploring community participation & food citizenship. Accessed 12 June 2025.
Gardiner, H., Roughton, M., Howard, L., Hunt, L., Nisa, U. and Pettinger, C. (2025) Delivering participatory food systems research in our own communities: reflections about co-production by community food researchers and community partners (Pre-print). Open Science Framework. Accessed 29 April 2025.
Gardiner, H., Pettinger, C., Haslam-Lucas, A., Diouri, B., Ruminska, J., Dunn, L., Ashton, Y., Hunt, L, and Hickson, M. (2025) What supports or destabilises the participation of community researchers? Exploring affective flows in co-production processes.
Gardiner, H., Pettinger, C., Haslam-Lucas, A., Diouri, B., Ruminiska., J., Dunn, L., Ashton, Y., Hunt, L., and Hickson, M. (2025) Transforming urban food systems: could food democracy and food citizenship be advanced by the personal and community impacts of co-production processes?
Lucas, A., and Fernee, S. (2023), 'Brighton & Hove Community Researchers: Their journey of learning. Sharing Our Experiences as Community Researchers', Accessed 8 October 2025.
Pettinger, C., Hunt, L., Gardiner, H., Garg, P., Howard, L., and Wagstaff, C. (2023) Engaging with ‘less affluent’ communities for food system transformation: a community food researcher model (FoodSEqual project). Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 83(3), 180-194.
TUKFS (2023), 'FoodSEqual'.
¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ (2023), 'FoodSEqual Plymouth stakeholder event, 25th November 2022. A community food research perspective, collaborative account. PIHR to Peer News', Accessed 22 August 2023.
Wagstaff C, Pettinger C, Relton C, Psarikidou K, Swan E, Methven L, et al. Addressing food system determinants of health inequalities in urban environments: learnings from the FoodSEqual and FoodSEqual-Health projects (2025). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 380: 20240150.