Blog: Using co-production to work towards a better food system for Glasgow
Riikka Gonzalez and Jill Muirie from the GCPH reflect on what co-production has looked like for working collectively towards a better food system for Glasgow.
The Glasgow City Food Plan (GCFP) is an example of a long-term approach to co-production between several public services and organisations. The central aim of the plan is to build a fairer and more sustainable food system. The vision is that everyone in the city can eat healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate, good food no matter where they live, their income or personal circumstances. There has already been a lot of great food work taking place in communities across Glasgow and the food plan seeks to build on these achievements.
Our co-production process started by listening to discussions about the challenges posed by our current food system at meetings, events and seminars. Together, we built a consensus for exploring how to create better food system.
To take this collective work forward, Glasgow Food Policy Partnership (GFPP) was established in 2014. GFPP is a group of public, private and volunteer sector organisations and currently has fourteen partners. GFPP discussions identified the need for a network to bring together community practitioners, organisations and other interested individuals to support and better co-ordinate community food work in the city as part of the vision of a flourishing food system. To this end, the Glasgow Community Food Network was created in 2017.
A wide range of organisations have given their support to develop a city-wide food plan. A core project team was set up in 2019 to co-ordinate the process. It comprises the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Glasgow Food Policy Partnership, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Community Food Network, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
These groups have encouraged and supported people in Glasgow who care about better food for the city to share their views. Activities have included: networking events held by GCFN to share learning and ideas, a food inequality inquiry held by GCC in 2018 and a Food Summit hosted by the GCPH and GCC in 2019. Lastly, GFPP employed a Sustainable Food Cities Co-ordinator to develop the existing partnership. A wide range of people have given ideas, including: chefs and restaurants, caterers, procurement staff, growers and market gardeners, food businesses, foodbanks and soup kitchen volunteers.
The draft Glasgow City Food Plan which has been developed by the stakeholders is now out for public consultation. Read more information about the plan.
