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Civic Innovation2021-22

Food Projects

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BackgroundIn 2020 The Yunus Centre initiated and supported a research project to examine Food Resilience in the Logan Region. The project included development of an online, interactive map of food outlets across Logan, which could be superimposed on maps illustrating key socio-economic data. What came out of this project was a recognition that Logan has:

- Pockets where fresh food is less available (particularly for residents who don’t have access to private transport);- An amazing diversity of food offerings, options and opportunities; and- A growing, diverse and young population who could potentially strengthen the range of food grown, produced, distributed and consumed across the region.

Logan as a Food DestinationThe fact that there are people from over 216 different cultures living in Logan, and an equally extraordinary array of food cultures springing up across the region has led to the Logan City Council supporting the development of Logan as a culturally diverse food destination. At the Yunus Centre we are keen to support this initiative and further support the development of diverse food opportunities in and around Logan through our ‘Loganly Grown’ food project, which builds from and on our original food resilience project.

Logan as a Food OasisIn many ways, Logan is a food oasis - there are so many diverse, unique and accessible food related experiences to be explored in and around Logan that we would like to extend our original research project into asking the question, ‘how might we identify, support, showcase and promote the many existing and potential food cultures, makers, growers, entrepreneurs, and providers in the region and thereby strengthen opportunities for this oasis to flourish’?

We have divided this into three core research questions that we will focus on over the next 12 months.

What does it take to grow civic participation in the making, sharing, providing of food in Logan?

How can we contribute to growing and amplifying civic pride in the diversity of food cultures in Logan?

How can we make sure that everyone has access to the abundance of fresh and healthy foods that exist in Logan?

What we will do to explore these questionsOur research has revealed that fostering civic innovation requires attention to both developing ecosystems (connecting opportunities, capacities and capabilities) and platforms (supports that enable people to access, build, promote, grow and share innovations). We are learning that what connects these supports and helps to grow opportunities for civic innovation in place are the assets, capitals, and infrastructures that are both latent within

communities and that can be strengthened with targeted investment, intentional commissioning and policy support (see figure 1).

For this focus we are proposing a number of small projects that help us to better understand civic innovation using the lens of food, and that simultaneously helps to to grow the ecosystem and platform in Logan for supporting civic innovation around food. The projects we will seek to undertake are outlined below.

YUNUS CENTRE MISSION-LED INNOVATION R&D PROGRAM

MISSION: CIVIC INNOVATIONPROJECT FOCUS: FOOD AS A FOCUS + DRIVER OF CIVIC INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMSConnecting people to opportunities,

capacities + capabilities

PLATFORM S

Assets Capitals

Infrastructures

The tangible + intangible assets

that exist in people + places that could

support civic innovation

The seven capitals - financial, social, natural, cultural, human, built +

political needed for civic innovation

Hard + Soft Infrastructures that support + grow civic

innovation. Hard = physical networks;

Soft = institutions

Supports that enable people to access, build, promote,

grow and share innovations

Figure 1: What research suggests is needed to support civic innovation - we will be testing this in our R&D work

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Mapping the Making of Food Ecosystems in LoganResearch focussed on civic innovation and participation has highlighted the importance of making visible both the potential and the contributions of civil society in creating change (see for example, Hagen, 2018). Our hypothesis in this demonstration project is that making and remaking maps of a place can help to open up new conversations and inspire communities to see opportunities and potentially to engage in innovative initiatives.

We have supported the creation of two maps of food systems in Logan to date. 1. Food Resilience Map - that links locality of food resources to socio-economic data points2. Loganly Grown Food Map of Loganthat identifies key food initiatives that are based in and have been developed in and around Logan, and reflect its unique

Focus: Using mapping to highlight different aspects of the food system in Logan, and identifying opportunities, assets, infrastructure and innovations.

Outputs:A series of maps that are developed as other projects progress which can help local citizens, governments, planners to ‘see’ what is happening in food innovations around Logan, and to participate in ‘changing the maps’ through further innovation.

What we want to learn about civic innovation:Part of all innovation process is making visible what is already happening, and also creating visions of what could happen. Innovation is about envisioning, anticipating the future and then creating pathways towards that future. We want to explore how creating different ‘views’ of the food system in Logan can reflect exisitng assets and inspire citizens to contribute to and participate in innovating new initiatives in the region. We will seek to engage people and organisations in this process, and track the engagement of people with the maps and the mapping process.

Growing Innovation Inspiration through Stories + NarrativesLogan has existing strengths and assets when it comes to growing, providing and producing food, and in the huge diversity of food cultures that have their roots in the region. There are over 216 cultures in Logan and an equal number of food traditions. We know that Logan has been the subject of negative stereotypes for many years - and this can hamper internal ‘beliefs’ about the potential for innovation in a place, but also external perceptions of the place. This in turn can dampen civic innovation potential. In this project we want to:

- Promote the rich harvest of food initiatives and activities that are based in and around Logan and strengthen the connections between them; - Celebrate the diverse food cultures that exist across Logan, and finding ways to promote this as a way to bring people of Logan together and invite others to the table.- Grow opportunities for local food businesses (in all their forms) in Logan and make sure there’s fertile soil for new food initiatives, enterprises to take root in Logan.

Focus: Collecting stories of the rich diversity of food initiatives happening in Logan (makers, growers, sellers, providers, innovators, ), using the FolkTale app, and promote these via our Loganly Grown platform, also gifting them to the storytellers to promote on their platforms (strengthening strong and weaker ties across networks).

Outputs:A series of folktale stories (and perhaps some longer videos) that promote food initiatives in Logan - and that reflect the rich diversity of both cultures and initiatives in the food space.

What we want to learn about civic innovation:We are keen to explore how the narratives of a place can shift through highlighting positive stories and initiatives - and in this way also create positive feedback loops that grow the future innovative potential of an area.

This project will be also include a specific focus on food initiatives developed by Logan residents from a refugee background through academic research undertaken by Dr. Julienne Senyard from the Griffith Business School. Dr Senyard and her research assistant will focus on collecting stories from this cohort of innovators, and will follow this up with in-depth interviews.

We will also create an online platform (in the form of a website and social media page) to share our ‘outputs’ from each of the projects. This will be grown over the course of the years work, and then be passed on to whoever can take on the work of promoting food culture in Logan (part of our promise to ‘biodegrade’ over time rather than become central to servicing ongoing initiatives).

This would create an experimental ‘platform’ for the food-based civic innovation ecosystem of Logan - and this idea of how platforms and ecosystems of civic innovation both emerge and develop is a key part of what we want to learn through these various experiments. The platform will also enable us track engagement over time.

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Growing Food in Logan: Microfarms, Community Gardens + Urban Food in PlaceOver the course of 2020 and 2021 we have supported research examining food resilience in Logan, led by Dr. Kim Reis. In this next part of our work we will continue to work with Dr Reis and other researchers from across Griffith looking specifically at how they are working with initiatives focussed on growing food in an urban context.

Focus: To support and document opportunities for growing food in urban contexts, particularly with the aims of growing capability, capacity and resilience in communities and improving access to fresh, locally grown food.

Outputs: These will be developed in collaboration with Dr. Kim Reis and various teams from Griffith University, Logan City Council and other partners. What we want to learn about civic innovation: How can we grow capacity and capability for urban agriculture in communities around Logan?

Creating Networked Opportunities for Civic Innovation in FoodUsing the Foodpreneurs event to spark an exploration of how to connect up and strengthen potential and existing food initiatives in Logan.

Focus: To promote and tap into the energy of existing food initiatives in Logan, and also collaborate with LCC to explore potentials for how to network and weave civic innovation into and around their food tourism initiatives.

Outputs: These will be developed in collaboration and consultation with the participants in the Foodpreneurs events. What we want to learn about civic innovation: How networks develop over time to support civic innovation and what is needed to ‘infrastructure’ or support such networks so that they move from discussion to action.

We are also keen to foster and create networks of researchers across Griffith who are interested in food focussed iniativies that reflect civic innovation. With this in mind we will convene some discussions and exchanges amongst researchers, and use this to catalyse partnerships and potentially new research initiatives in line with the research cluster on social innovation and entrepreneurship which Yunus Centre was hosting in 2019/20.

SUBEE is a container wicking garden built by Logan social enterprise Substation33 to show what can be done when waste containers are reused and turned into living, growing gardens!

SUBEE is built into an industrial waste bin that was being discarded by a local business. Instead of ending up in landfill, Substation33 decided to transform the bin into a mobile garden for The Yunus Centre at Griffith University.

SUBEE is designed so that water can be stored in the container and material (wicking) draws it up from the reservoir at the bottom to keep the soil nice and moist. SUBEE also has additional features - he can follow the sun (if we push him around!), and he can compost our food scraps (through the special compost shoot).

We would like to promote GROWING in the Logan region and are considering options of an urban food growing competition to identify and promote all the different ways we could grow food in urban contexts. This would be developed for 2022.

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Behind the Scenes:The Loganly Grown food project is part of our ‘Civic Innovation’ R&D program at the Yunus Centre. In this program we are exploring how communities, cities and regions can tap into the extraordinary innovation powers of their citizens to grow opportunities, initiatives and projects that could help us to transition to economies that are more sustainable, more just and more participatory.

We think that innovation with and by citizens is going to be a critical part of addressing current challenges like climate change and growing inequality and to ensuring that alternatives are able to develop and flourish.

Our core question in this program is:

-How might we intentionally tap into and strengthen civic participation in innovation in order to grow local economies that are more sustainable and equitable?

So the food project asks this question in relation to civic innovation focussed on food!

In undertaking the projects outlined here we are seeking to contribute to the growing diversity of food cultures in Logan, as well as building practical knowledge about civic innovation.

In order to share both these aspects of the work with the community of Logan we will use the platform outlined on page 4. The platform will include a website and social media channels, and we’ll be recording and sharing stories using the FolkTale app developed by local film directors, The Story Boxes. Using these mediums we will share all the outputs that are generated, but potentially also create a means for ongoing communication about food focussed civic innovation in Logan.

The food-focussed work in our civic innovation mission integrates four elements of civic innovation that we have a hunch can help to

MAKING CIVIC INNOVATION VISIBLE THROUGH MAPPING

BUILDING NETWORKS OF CIVIC

INNOVATORS

DEMONSTRATING CIVIC INNOVATION IN

PLACE

FOOD INNOVATION

PLATFORM FOR LOGAN

SHARING STORIES + GROWING THE

NARRATIVE OF CIVIC INNOVATION

grow a culture of action and innovation in place. These are:

- making visible what is already happening and where the potential exists for innovation;

- sharing stories from across the community and thereby growing both the awareness and the narrative that people can participate and innovate in place;

- demonstrating civic innovation - and supporting or showcasing demonstrations of innovation across the community to illustrate that it’s happening and it’s possible to get involved;

- building networks of civic innovators who can support each other, amplify each others work, and provide a foundation for growing more innovation in place.

Collating and sharing the work on our food innovation platform will help us test whether these elements can actually contribute to growing civic innovation in Logan.

If you would like futther information or would like to get involved in our food and civic innovation work please contact Ingrid Burkett - i.burkett@griffith.edu.au