Food co-ops!
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Research on practices and challenges faced by non-profit, grassroots, retail food co-ops is creating opportunities.
Thanks to a Postdoctoral Fellowship and further funding from ESRC, Dr Celia Plender has been able to expand her research with non-profit, grassroots, retail food co-ops in London. She has explored practices of politics, aid, care, and community building as a volunteer-member with two food co-ops through a long-term engagement.
The research has created opportunities for reflection and discussion within each co-op, while also enabling her to contribute to wider discussions around issues such as food poverty, sustainability, alternative economic practices, and community building.
Her volunteering with Sustain Food Co-ops project (2016-17) led to membership of Just FACT, a project with the forum for The Women’s Environmental Network. Celia is also chair of the board of trustees at St Sidwell’s Community Centre, which she joined in 2019. In collaboration with Food Exeter, St Sidwell’s and other local food co-ops and organisations she is working on a project that will develop a case study-based toolkit to address the challenge many food projects face in bringing together sustainable food and equitable food access.
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