Communications and Engagement Working Group
Our Food Stories: A Communications and Engagement Strategy’, was created to support the implementation of the Our Food Futures Strategy. This working group exists to take forward, develop, implement, and review this communications and engagement strategy, with the aim of supporting ‘a thriving local food system that is healthy, resilient and fair’.
This working group pulls together core comms people from across the FoodFutures partnership, and welcomes others from the network to join where they need support around comms or engagement work.
Focussing on both internal and external communications, online and in person, this working group pilots projects; implements and develops the Our Food Stories strategy; offers support to those in our network; hosts skills shares and acts as the decision making board for projects such as THRIVE magazine, THRIVEpod, North Lancashire Food Champion Network and the Good Food Manifesto.
This group meets on the last Monday of every month.
This group’s priorities are:
Implement & develop Our Food Stories.
- Meet monthly to take forward, develop, implement and review the FoodFutures communications and engagement strategy; developing distributed marketing processes that are monitored and reviewed annually.
- Increase reach of all FoodFutures communications channels – building representation and connections (online and in person), across Lancaster District and across the food system.
- Attend and host events across the District, including monthly skill shares.
- Secure long term funding to support and increase capacity of FoodFutures communications coordination work.
THRIVE and Citizen Journalism
- Publish a weekly column in the Lancaster Guardian & Morecambe Visitor/ FoodFutures website/ Social Media Channels that platforms a variety of lived experience stories from across our region and food system.
- Publish a quarterly print and digital THRIVE magazine, launched at seasonal markets and platforming a variety of stories of lived experience from across our region and food system.
- Publish THRIVEpod episodes, linked to THRIVE Magazine themes, that explore topics in greater depth.
- Coordinate monthly citizen journalism skill shares and other training and support activities, to build a network of active citizen journalists.
- Build the resilience (financial +) of THRIVE and the citizen journalism programme of support.
North Lancashire Food Champion Network
- Host monthly recruitment and induction sessions during the spring/summer months; offering a route into FoodFutures and becoming a more active local food citizen – drawing on the ‘Call to Action’ document for inspiration.
- Develop the comms materials required for supporting the Food Champion Network in collaboration with Morecambe Bay Community Riso Press, including: leaflet, poster, DIY banner, regular columns featuring Food Champion voices.
- Host a series of skill shares, bespoke training, networking and celebration events to build a local food champion movement and network of support.
- Facilitate an annual review process with network members to develop and embed learnings into the Food Champion Movement Building Canvas going forward.
- Secure funding to support the network’s development over the next 5 years.
Good Food Manifesto:
- Launch and Pilot the Good Food Manifesto; implementing and developing the Good Food Manifesto Movement Building Canvas.
- Develop the comms materials required for supporting the Good Food Manifesto network in collaboration with Morecambe Bay Community Riso Press, including: a poster, welcome pack, online directory of members, pledge tracker.
Communications and Engagement Resources
Our Food Stories: A Communications and Engagement Strategy, has been created in response to the publication of Our Food Futures: A Community Food Strategy for North Lancashire. In creating this, FoodFutures working group members from across the network have critically thought through our theory of change and our approach to communications and engagement.
We have questioned: How can we unlock the Our Food Futures strategy and bring about its vision whilst cultivating an inclusive and welcoming movement of change in the district?
This communications and engagement strategy seeks to merge both worlds – online and in person – in order to bring people together across our District and food system. In so doing, it seeks to build communities of support, action and a place-based movement of change.
If successful, ‘Our Food Stories: A Communications and Engagement Strategy’ will bring us closer to attaining FoodFutures vision of a “thriving local food system that is healthy, resilient and fair”.