In October, Better Food Traders helped facilitate an engaging and inspiring day bringing together people from across Kent to reimagine a diverse, vibrant and sustainable food economy for the county.
Kent Food Partnership was established last year and was recognised as a Sustainable Food Place in November 2023. It had created a strategy as part of that work, and one of its priorities under the Sustainable Food Economy strand was to develop a county-wide definition of a diverse, vibrant and sustainable food economy for Kent.
Using a facilitation process called Social Imagination, and working with the wonderful Jessica Ball, we got everyone thinking about food, farming, sustainability and the local economy – and what we want it to look like in the future.
The workshop was held at Bore Place, home of Commonwork Organic Farm, of one of Kent’s pioneering organic farms. The group of 38 attendees were taken on a farm tour by Bore Place’s Ecologist, Heather Dickie, and learned about both the amazing benefits and challenging realities of commercial organic farming.
We used the setting as an opportunity both for learning but also for feeling and engaging with nature – with participants encouraged to use all of their senses; to think about the land, the soil, the plants and the creatures; and to jot some notes on What supports thriving life in a food system?
Back in the Large Barn, we facilitated the group to collectively imagine a world where local people, biodiversity and the land were cared for equally. We explored ways that health, well-being, affordability and sustainability could be placed at the heart of Kent’s food system, using empathy maps, drawings, and then a cross-pollination session to interrogate and add to each others’ ideas.
We ate a delicious lunch made from Bore Place’s own produce, and there were lots of opportunities for building connections within the food partnership and with those from the wider Kent food sector.
A slide deck capturing everything that came out of the day can be found here. We built on the strategy created by Kent Food Partnership last year and drew up some action points for each working group to take forward. 
We’ve had lots of great feedback about using collective imagination to think about our food system: “Thank you for an excellent and interesting day yesterday. I left feeling very inspired and hopeful for the Kent Food Partnership” and “Just wanted to complement you and the team on yesterday’s event. It was very well run and an extremely interesting session.”
The partnership has also received a number of useful follow-ups and offers of support. We hope the workshop will serve to catalyse further work and help create a more solid footing for the partnership as it looks to set up a legal structure and secure funding. Most of all, it was a creative, thought-provoking and joyful day so thank you to all who attended and shared their imagination!
If you would like to know more about collective imagination practice and how Better Food Traders can support with this kind of facilitation, feel free to get in touch with our Executive Director, Julia Kirby-Smith – julia@betterfoodtraders.org.