This event connects with Food Plymouth’s Sustainable Food Cities Local Food Economy work, discovering budding entrepreneurs with a thirst for improving food provision in Plymouth.
In January Food Plymouth joined up with the King’s Cross Impact Hub to deliver a Feeding the City Ideation workshop to aspiring food entrepreneurs and others with food and entrepreneurship experience. We were pleased to welcome people from all over the city, some with a business idea they wanted to explore and some who were simply curious about what the workshop could provide.
It was a great opportunity for attendees and Food Plymouth members to discover what other people felt were the food related priorities in Plymouth. After a brief introduction and a chance to have a quick chat with others in the room we got down to business: looking at the processing, access, consumption, distribution and disposal of food in Plymouth and how participants’ business plans could help provide local communities with sustainable and socially conscious food.
Breaking out into work groups, participants talked together to get a better view on existing challenges, identify a specific problem and then look further into community needs and potential solutions.
Once these challenges were highlighted, solutions seeking ensued, taking into consideration root causes causes. Participants were encouraged to individually capture their thoughts by creating as many solutions as they could think of in order to get a bigger idea of how to work on and refine a particular solution. Presenting these initial thoughts to their fellow group members gave them a chance to compare and discuss their reasoning and then build on the initial ideas.
The workshop then moved on to solution mapping where we looked at the impact and feasibility of proposals and drawing out the key idea which would then be taken forward and refined.
There was certainly an abundance of ideas in the room and much enthusiasm for creating positive change within local communities. All aspects of food were discussed and connections were made. The openness of the participants’ discussions and their willingness to share ideas and help develop each other’s solutions was a truly inspiring thing to see.
Workshop lead facilitator Andrew Shadrake said: “It was a pleasure to be involved in delivering this workshop. The people who came with business ideas were inspiring, and responded brilliantly to the interactive format. We also provided support after the event to those interested in submitting an application for a full year’s support from King’s Cross Impact Hub. Just as importantly, the people attending agreed to keep in touch, to support each other as they developed their plans. Food Plymouth looks forward to continuing to assist them in future” .
