Local food-growing initiatives respond to the Covid-19 crisis: enhancing well-being, building community for better futures

新冠肺炎危机揭示了英国社会的严重不平等。许多弱势群体更难获得食物，因此第三部门组织动员了紧急食品供应。他们还扩大了社区粮食种植倡议，这些倡议提高了参与者的福祉，加强了社会凝聚力，使粮食供应本地化，从而建立了未来的抵御力。该项目将调查2019冠状病毒病危机期间扩大社区培育、其效益、社会障碍和克服这些障碍的手段，特别是针对更脆弱的边缘化社会群体，目的是加强第三部门的这种包容能力。通过参与式数字故事讲述，该项目将与社区培育中的第三部门合作伙伴合作，从社区食品活动中引出参与者的感受、愿望、社会联系和多重利益。这些知识将确定在2019冠状病毒病危机期间部署的最有效战略，并制定分享和推广这些战略的方法。因此，数字故事讲述过程具有双重目的：一种研究方法，一种通过我们的第三部门合作伙伴促进更好实践的手段。作为一项实际影响，粮食种植活动将加强他们与弱势边缘化人群的接触，从而帮助克服不平等。基于数字资产和研究见解，该项目将为社区粮食计划提供一个开放获取的在线能力建设计划，使它们能够在全国范围内扩大类似的效益。这种影响将促进更好的心理健康、福祉和更好地获得健康食品；它们还将传播增强社会复原力的农业食品做法，从而为不健康、不可持续的农业食品系统提供另一种选择。

The Covid-19 crisis has revealed the stark inequalities in UK society. Many vulnerable people havehad more difficulty accessing food, so third-sector organisations have mobilised emergency foodprovision. They have also expanded community food-growing initiatives, which enhanceparticipants' well-being, strengthen social cohesion, localise food provision and thus build futureresilience. This project will investigate the expansion of community cultivation during the Covid-19 crisis, its benefits, social barriers and means to overcome them, especially for more vulnerablemarginalised social groups, with the aim to strengthen third-sector capacities for such inclusion.Through participatory digital story-telling, this project will work with third-sector partners incommunity cultivation to elicit participants' feelings, aspirations, social connections and multiplebenefits from community food activities. This knowledge will identify the most effective strategiesthat have been deployed during the Covid-19 crisis, and devise ways to share and promote them.Thus the digital story-telling process has a dual purpose: a research method and a means topromote better practices through our third-sector partners. As a practical impact, food growingactivities will strengthen their engagement with vulnerable marginalised people, thus helping toovercome inequalities. Based on the digital assets and research insights, the project will providean open-access online capacity-building programme for community food programmes, so thatthey can outscale similar benefits around the country. This impacts will promote better mentalhealth, well-being and better access to healthy food; they will also spread agri-food practices thatenhance social resilience, and thus provide an alternative to the unhealthy, unsustainable agrifoodsystem.