Friday 29th January 2016

Session chaired by Amanda, Yana and Amy: “Moral Ingredients: Principles as a working group”

This has been my first week on the project, so for me, as a newly appointed research assistant, the session was informative: getting up to date, feeling the spirit of the group and the project, and meeting people: both students and the team.

I. Tossed salad: Getting to know one another

The announced topic of discussion has been the working norms and ethical standards to which the group will adhere and which will guide the team- work. Pairing and ongoing exchange of information, skills and experiences has been pointed out as a major guiding principle and expectation from all exchanges. That naturally led the discussion to a skills audit. Everyone present shared their main interests and the skills they bring to the group:

Nina: interested in diets and the perception on healthy foods. She is particularly curios whether the perception and believe that certain diet is “ healthier” is resulting in people feeling “healthier”;

Amy: interested in foods relation to spirituality and Food Justice. She shared her background in working with community and volunteer organizations and having good networking and organizational skills. She piloted the model of students taking turns to convene each individual session and setting an agenda and plan and making sure all scheduled topics have been covered;

Laurie: Main interest is in Food Policies and Food systems. Quite passionate about reducing food waste and community garden projects. Keen on conducting research and interviewing;

Amanda: Interested in Food science, community gardens, food deserts and food systems. Amanda (Sia): Interested in Sustainable development, Food consumption patterns and the impacts of promoting sustainability. Interested in desk-research on those topics;

Holy: interested in Gender issues: equality and access to food within the household, the perceptions of “fairness” with regards to food and access to food and the cultural aspects and specifics of food, access and availability.

Yana: Sustainable development: Food sharing and distribution, circular economies. Provides an overview of ongoing activities and existing organizations as she is involved with and follows a few other initiatives.

Roselyn: Interested in the social aspects of food. Interested in networking, liasoning with other organizations and spreading awareness. As a team-leader for Fresher’s week feels, she has good organizational and communication skills.

II. Moral ingredients

The meeting then continued onto a discussion on the moral norms and ethics that should guide the teamwork. The following questions were put forward for discussion:

What moral principles would guide our work together?

How to resolve disagreement?

How not to let individuals or groups of individuals dominate the discussions and the decision-making process?

The group unanimously agreed that common work should be guided by a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect. Desire to speak out should be indicated by hand-raising and the atmosphere should be relaxed and encouraging sharing and having fun. Different or conflicting opinions should be acknowledged without judgement. In order to ensure that everyone gets a chance to voice their opinions

and to counter for the possibility of individuals or groups dominating the discussion, a talking circle and talking token have been suggested.

(As a result of this discussion, Amy compiled a PARFS Ethics form: Aligning Moral Ingredients and Ethical principles. The document is available on Learn)

III. Sustainability Jam

A brainstorming session followed on possible project that the PARFS team can research on and put forward for the next cohort of students. Multi-coloured notes were attached to sticky boards with suggestions and ideas, identifying areas for intervention and possible projects. Three broader topics emerged, harnessing most interest:

- Raising awareness:

1. Cooking classes (practical experience, providing information about nutrition, how to achieve a balanced diet and use seasonal produce, vegan and vegetarian cooking); Possible project: Handbook with culturally diverse and seasonal recipes;

2. Debates, panel discussions, film screenings, leaflets with information on seasonal foods and where to find it. Possible project: Conducting a survey into students’ eating habits and behaviour; Survey into vegetarians’ and vegans’ expectations for food on campus;

- Food week: Modelled after the “Innovation Learning Week”, a food festival on campus. Bringing together societies, SRS, FRIED, the Chaplaincy and local businesses. Involving the “third” sector to bring awareness of more diverse and nutritious food on campus. Mary noted, that although an exciting initiative, the research element is largely missing with this particular model.

- Waste Management: Reduce the amount of plastic/paper used in cafes: compostable packaging, more re-usable plates/cups and cutlery. Possible project: Research on Keep Cups (history, origin, reasons for success, stats and figures); Possible projects: Introducing a scheme for borrowing travel mugs on a daily basis/ introducing single-use coffee mugs surcharge.

At the end of the session, students were encouraged to think about the research side of the projects. To think in terms of budgeting and time-investment and to reflect on the dichotomy of Research vs. Action. They have been asked to reflect on whether they would like to prepare Action plans to inform the research, or would they rather opt to conduct research that might later on lead to developing an action plan.

Friday 5th February 2016

Meeting Chaired by Amanda Sia and Roslyn: Meeting Ian from ACE

Note: I have been away from Edinburgh for this meeting and have joined it via Skype. The call dropped before the end of the session, as laptop battery was drained, so I could not follow on any discussions which might have happened after Ian’s talk. There are no meeting minutes or actionable items sent by the convenors for the meeting, so the minutes are incomplete.

Session started with recapping previous week’s brainstorming exercise and going through the project ideas. After that the students broke into groups to discuss what do they hope to get from Ian and what questions to ask him. The following questions emerged from the discussion: More information on Keep Cups? Which is the most successful project and why? What obstacles are you facing? How do you know which producers and sources are sustainable and why?

Ian started by outlining the structure of Catering services clearly distinguishing between ACE and Edinburgh First on one side and EUSA-run venues on the other. He talked about the issues experienced with serving hot food, especially in catered accommodation and the commitment he has made to supply nutritious and freshly- made food, with minimal use of pre-packaged and pre-processed ingredients. He also discussed the issue of “food miles” and that he is trying to work with local producers as much as possible, but that there are also logistical difficulties to fully commit to those.

Ian shared information on the efforts catering has been making to reduce food waste in catered accommodations, both through reducing the plate size, reducing the individual portion size, eliminating serving trays and educating students on the importance of reducing waste. He went on to discussing Food safety issues and the associated national and EU food safety and allergy regulations and the associated bureaucracy, which makes interventions quite difficult. He also briefly mentioned that ACE is guided by a set if Quality and Sustainability requirements and is committed to implement the best practices.

When asked whether left-over food can be donated to charities, he went on to explaining how food cooked in house is internally re-used and recycled within the period of 2 days, after which it is deemed unsuitable for human consumption and needs to be disposed of. To donate such products would be violation of the food safety regulations.

The main concern he repeatedly expressed was the lack of recognition at a pan- university level. ACE has been recognised with the “Food for the Brain”, “Food for life”, “Healthy Living Award” and the “Good Egg Award”, in addition ACE has achieved a good rating with the Sustainable Restaurant Association and has been holding it for a number of years. However, Ian complained of lack of publicity and interest towards those achievements.

As he felt that the Keep Cups initiative has been sufficiently promoted and well- advertised, he considered that the main point for intervention by PARFS students would be in spreading awareness and promoting engagement with the Good Food movement. He also saw the need for further educational campaigns on reducing food waste under the motto of “Love Food, Hate Waste!”.

12th February 2016

“Envisioning the Future”

After the comprehensive, but somewhat discouraging presentation by Ian, the session has been dedicated to bold dreaming and envisioning a possible future towards a more sustainable and “edible” campus.

in which we all have shared our hopes and dreams of what could the Edinburgh University Campus look like in 10 years’ time.

The main themes that emerged from the brainstorming were gravitating around:

1. Waste management and recycling/upcycling- Better managing and decreasing food/general waste- Increasing recycling rates- Reusable cups/cutlery- Hot lunch facilities

2. Edible estates- Growing food on campus- Orchards- Herb Gardens- Leafy Greens- Rooftop/ container/ vertical gardening

3. Circular economy- Loyalty Cards/ Discounted food on campus- Supplies for food boxes- Co-op store on Campus- Affordable catering outlets- Sharing and co-operation

4. Food festivals- Cultural exchange of Food cultures and cuisines- Community Kitchens- Cooking classes/Recipe booklets

5. Engagement/ Outreach- Educating the student body on good practices- Educating the student body on specific designations and presidency over concrete matters

within the Institution- More transparency and information on what is happening around campus- More information on innovative initiatives- Community outreach and joint programmes

The need for some more focused background research, has been discussed, in order to estimate what steps we can take to make our collective dreams come true and to translate them into projects. Since we didn’t really need to re-invent the wheel, we decided start with scoping what has already been done within our Home institution, but also do some research on inspiring and innovative initiatives taken up by other academic institutions within the UK or even in other places in Europe. To help start the process, I have set up a Doodle poll where everyone could state their spheres of interest. The plan is to then break in groups and distribute the work among all members- some can scope UoE and others reach out to see what has been implemented elsewhere. Each group can share their most exciting findings at our next meeting on 26 Feb.

The most suitable and interactive method to keep in touch, exchange information, share ideas and discuss topics outside the weekly meetings. Several options were discussed, but as the majority felt Facebook will be a more interactive and easy way to communicate, discuss and exchange ideas, a brand new project Facebook group has been set up. An e-mail containing a Doodle poll for research input and links to useful resources has been sent out to all students.

26th February 2016 Moving to research-oriented projects

Chaired by Catherine

Doodle poll was initiated to map out the individual interests of students and to give students a chance to choose a project with which they would like to get more involved. The Doodle poll had the following categories Waste management; Gardening; Circular Economy/Sharing; Co-operation; Food festivals and Community Kitchen; Engagement &Outreach.

Amy, Amanda Sia and Amanda Midhamre chose to do background research on Circular Economies. At the meeting they presented several examples of circular economies within the campuses of different universities, including Edinburgh University, Lausanne University, University of Toronto. A particular

example has been of UoT using the principles of circular economy to run their estates and procurement services. Bradford University, has devised an online course on Circular economy and has a Centre for Circular Economy.

They suggested possible projects such as an initiative on using food waste to produce biogas; a warehouse for leasing/ exchanging re-usable cooking utensils; and using community gardening as a team-building exercise

Laurie, Nina and Hamish, were working on Waste/Food Waste Management, focusing mostly on Keep Cups and other re-usable travel mugs alternatives. Their main concerns have been with the miles on the Keep Cups which are not locally produced and are shipped from Australia. Laurie has conducted an interview with the Manager of the CMB café and one of the areas he identified as prone to intervention was to redesign the add to further promote dissemination. Another idea they had was to research on the potential for soliciting discount for all re-usable/travel mug users on campus.

Natalia and Lola decided to work on the Edible estate. They were discussing different modes and ideas for growing food on campus and gave examples from the Bradford eco- campus and the “Incredible Edible…” Campaign. Also Alexis’ process for plot allotment has been discussed with regards to suitable spaces.

Yana, Holly and Alex, chose Food Festivals and Community Kitchens as a topic for their background research. Their research was of the Sheffield festival around local produce, International festivals with a food- festival component, such as the ones of the Slow Food movement. They had diverse ideas on possible projects involving local business, the chaplaincy and campus cafes in a series of lectures and events to promote and discuss Food Security& Food Sustainability. Such events would include a “Left-overs Masterchef” competition, farmers’ market and a pop-up farm on campus. The festival would be framed around cultural diversity and Scientific approach to food issues and nutrition.

Roslyn was the lone taker on the topic of Engagement, Outreach and Education. Through discussion it was decided that it would be better if those activities are incorporated in the Food festival agenda. The Outreach and Education component would contain information on Food waste and how to avoid it, information on local foods and local sustainable food events. A fairtrade week and a green week can be organized together with a farmers’ market. Examples of existing initiatives are the Green Impact Competition. However, there were concerns expressed over the sustainability and replicability of such an initiative.

The Innovation Initiative Grants have recently opened for applications, so a suggestion was put forward to develop a grant proposal for the most feasible projects. The suggestion was met with enthusiasm.

4th March 2016 Chaired by Holy: Preparing for the IIG

The aim of the session was to get to a point where we would have some consolidated ideas on feasibility/objectives/action plan. Each group was asked by Holy to prepare 3 separate mind maps (for the sticky wall), each discussing one of the following topics:

- Most recent research findings/linking with other groups 

- Feasibility/logistics as a project, timeframe and possibility within PARFS- Possibility of application to innovation grant/other grants available

We hoped this will stimulate constructive discussion and decision making on viability of projects; integration between projects and how to take projects forward.

The session ended with general admin stuff- asking students to fill- out the consent form for parttaking in PARFS.

11th March 2016 Chaired by Lola and Natalia

Three distinct projects have started taking form. Keep Cups of Laurie, Amy and Nina decided to produce a report on Keep cups. The Edible estate project team of Lola and Natalia is putting together an IIG grant application for a raised-bed student gardening plot. The proposal includes provisions for making a growing-guide for future gardeners and is informed by the Food growing approving process.

Alex, Vivien, Holly, Roslyn and Yana pooled efforts to work on the grant application for a food festival. Since the SRS has run a similar event during Fresher’s week this year, Alexis could offer valuable advice and insights into what should a project proposal contain. The even is envisioned to run later in the year and to cover cooking skills, nutrition or possibly be run as a farmers market.

Next steps for the projects are writing-up the grants proposal and working on the budgeting. An End of Project feedback format was shown to students and they were asked to give their feedback on form.

18th March 2016 Chaired by Amy and Nina: Budgeting

Both groups have shared their draft proposals over e-mail. During the meeting they were commented on and discussed mostly with regards to clarification and budgeting. More information has been provided on the application process and a Named/Contact person was nominated for each project: Alex for the Food Festival and Lola for the Food Growing one.

The budgets of both proposals were further reviewed and clarified. Students split in groups and circulated the two proposals to receive a diverse feedback and ideas.

The feedback on the feedback form was not favourable, so Niamh and I decided to explore other methods for receiving evaluation on the project and the work done.

25th March 2016

Final Session

Final discussions on the grant proposals and preparation for submission. Niamh asked for feedback on the project: What did people like and enjoy, what didn’t they like? What can be improved? What should be done differently? Multicoloured sticky notes were provided to each student, who gave their anonymous reviews and further discussed what they have taken away from the course: long term group-work with people from different backgrounds, with different personalities and expertise, flexibility of involvement and interests to name a few.

Students were also asked on how can they imagine PARFS as a credit-bearing course and how might they imagine for such to be assessed. Most, however, were not thrilled with the idea and shared that the voluntary spirit of flexible involvement is what they enjoyed most. The sentiment that turning it into a course subject to assessment would change the dynamics and mar enthusiasm was also put forward.

With regards to the next steps, several people, including Lola and Natalia, said they would be happy to be involved with PARFS next year as well and that they would be keep to see the projects through.