this feeds me
8ish things I’ve realised working in food recently
Around a year ago, like so many of us on Substack, I made a wee schedule and announced what my anticipated plan for writing would be in 2023. And then, of course, life happens, things change and so did my writing plan!
Despite making creative progress in my career since I graduated from my MSc Gastronomy a few years ago, I found myself constantly chasing hours in my day job last year to boost my monthly income whilst juggling other commitments, freelance work and scraps of a social life. It’s fair to say this has all come at quite a cost! Having been made redundant from my managerial job at Locavore CIC in Dalry just before Christmas, I realise I was probably leaning in the wrong direction.
Since writing the last paragraph, I’ve also been made redundant for the second time in just five weeks by this business due to its insolvency, so my best-laid plans have gone agley all over again. All this said, these feelings are nothing compared to the weight of collectively being complicit in genocide, however they do stack together and they are all connected. During the last few months, I have n’t made much space to finish writing what I had intended to share about what I’ve been reading related to food and Palestine (food being my lens for most things in the world). This will come soon, though it’s fair to say that sometimes poems about vegetables are also about other things.
Spending the past few weeks frantically applying for jobs and reviewing my 10ish year’s journey of working within grassroots food activism and food sovereignty has been a really useful process for me. It turns out I’ve done a lot! Including some projects I’d almost forgotten about!
Some I will never forget; like the time my friend Paula wistfully whispered English translations from activists on the frontline (in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Benin) into my ear during a talk on ‘Food as a Motor of Peace, of Local development and of contrast to the Crisis’ at Slow Food’s Terra Madre back in 2018. (P.S. please check out this wonderful Mar Menor project Paula has been working on recently). 2016, when Mo invited me and other strangers from the community into his Edinburgh family home to share Palestinian cuisine as part of a former start-up social enterprise called ‘Munch Together’.
I’ve had the privilege to meet so many people who have radically altered my life, and it’s made me realise I’m not ready to give up fighting for food justice just yet. Even if I have to join LinkedIn (!), I’m ready and willing to fail, keep learning and fail again if need be.
I’m still in love with this difficult, complex and messy vocation; despite the lack of opportunities in Scotland which are able to pay me to think about and work with food in ways that feeds me both creatively and intellectually. In the meantime, I have a wee work-gap plan…and I’m asking for your help…
New Amuse newsletter
From February 2024; I will send a free monthly newsletter which will be informed by my playful approach to Food and Design.
Apart from this, as I continue to explore themes, feelings and forms, the majority of my personal and creative writing will be paywalled from March onwards. If you can help support my Substack as part of this work transition, I’d really appreciate this.
Subscriber-only Content (just £3.50 month/£42 year*)
In addition to the free monthly newsletter; paid subscribers will also get access to the following themed columns every month:
Memorable Meals - A 100 word tale of a memorable eating experience
Recipes for Volunteering - Recipes that have shaped my voluntary work with food
Amuse me! - A delightfully vague wild card piece…either a story, poem, picture, sketch, or reading!
A Potluck Playlist - seasonal, curated and collaborative playlists with food at the heart
*To entice you into supporting me in this journey, I will send a special gift pack worth over £25 to all new UK-based subscribers who sign up for an annual subscription before 15th March 2024!
If this sounds all little ambitious, I’m happy to share I’ve actually already written and scheduled the majority of this content for the next few months! Themes include thinking about dates and desires, and how we may resist or embrace our food futures.
The Free Gift Pack
Contains
Two wee lined notebooks by Rachelle W Designs
Deliciously scented soap by Soapstack
A wee tenement pin badge by Casssandra Harrison (designs vary)
Ditsy or cactus leaf washi tape by Magimoo
A surprise!
Due to extortionate postage costs, I can only send this to subscribers in the UK, but I can send as a gift to someone if you live elsewhere and would like to make use of this offer!
A rapidly growing Substack (food) community
As the Substack community grows, I realise there are so many wonderful writers to follow on Substack, and paying for paid subscription packages can quickly add up if you’re on a tight budget. If you are on a low income and wish to access my paywalled content but are unable to pay at the moment, please do say! I aim to prioritise supporting other up and coming food-adjacent writers like myself, or publications actively working to curate and showcase thoughtful, nuanced global food writing, such as Vittles, Feminist Food Journal & From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy. I am happy to do paywall membership swaps for those who are in a similar postion to me!
To request a freebie subscription, discuss a collaborative piece, or contribute to the Potluck Playlist, please email me at foodplayfood@gmail.com
Anyway… here it is, the:
8ish things I’ve realised from working and job-hunting in food recently:
1. I’m still in love with food.
My eyes still light up when I mention Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson to others. It was the first book I had read that spun a yarn through some of the thoughts and feelings I have about food, pleasure, embodiment, gender, labour, playfulness and love. As I look forward to re-reading it in conjuction with Alicia Kennedy’s book club, I now realise it may have helped me give myself permission to explore those feelings further and more creatively than before.
2. I’ve been chronically underpaid
I’m just about to submit another tax return and I think it seems reasonable to state that this is at least the third year running where I have not earnt the equivalent full time earnings of the Real Living Wage. This is despite working for businesses that are signed up to the scheme, despite being a key-worker during the peak Covid lockdowns in the food sector and despite having some freelance assignments that have been both reasonably and well paid.
This leads me to my next point…
3. If you’re a values-led business you need to switch to Real Living Wage immediately when they announce the changes.
Yes, I know they give you a grace period, and sure, yes it can make business sense to delay the change if you’re a struggling business. But here’s my point; It’s not ok for your business to market itself as sustainble or Fair Trade or regenerative if you’re not paying your staff in this country a fair wage. If you’re not paying Real Living Wage, your business model is failing and you’re causing access problems for the workforce in the industry. Unfortunately, the sustainable food industry is full of workers who accept working this way because they care to their own detriment; who don’t join unions because they don’t suspect they will be treated unethically by an ethical brand/business, or because they feel the union fee is just too much to pay on their part-time wage.
4. Despite my Yorkshire accent I’m politically as well as emotionally Scottish
As a young teenage immigrant from Wakefield - I brought my dulcet tones and elongated vowel sounds up with me from West Yorkshire to Edinburgh. But as I’m now 43 (IKR!), that means not only did I grow up actually occasionally eating deep-friend Mars bars at school time lunches, but I’ve lived here for 30ish years.
I still have a need to continue to work/live in Scotland if working within the UK, so I can vote; not have my identity misunderstood or dismissed by those who may not understand the difference; so I can apply for funding, be a Scottish designer/maker/artist/ writer; so I can find it easier blame the Tories for the terrible state of things; and so I can see/contribute to how the Good Food Nation Act is implemented in Scotland.
5. I’m still in love with researching
Learning & data is everywhere, in everything I do. Realising this stokes that need to dive a bit deeper, pull a litle stronger and prod a little bit harder. Because of this curiosity, it’s very likely that I may need to continue to forge my own path so I can continue to embrace being a ‘food weirdo’ (I heard Alicia Kennedy use this in an Insta post the other day, but it’s my lovely friend Robyn who regularly uses as a descriptor!)
6. Don’t quit dancing = don’t quit life!
For the past few fews, I’ve returned to taking dance classes, first online, then hybrid/in studio. During this time, I’ve been quick to let this habit slip when illness or work deadlines or stress have taken grip. Fortunately though, my dance teacer Pirita Tuisku has n’t ever let me do this. And these last few months I havent let myself either. Pirita’s insistence that we “do n’t quit the gym” means she takes time to mentor her dancers of all levels, to ask and understand what barriers there are to just… keeping on going. I realise now how important it is to give my body (this complex system), space to stretch, play, shake and move!
7. Small acts of expression are very useful
I’m not sure when I started writing this newsletter that I would find myself writing more creatively about/through food, but it feels like this has been one small way I can still find some space to express myself. I’m finding more and more resonance with poetry and other forms of experimental writing. Whether what I am hoping to convey is understood by, or resonates with others remains to be seen, it’s really not something I’ve had much feedback on, and it’s still a very small audience. Finding (or maybe beginning to accept) my voice has been helped this year by joining the most excellent Writing With Non-monogamy course led by Ruth Charnock and Sarah Amsler, as well as getting the opportunity to join Chitra Ramaswamy’s Leith -based RLF-supported Reading Round.
8. I’m not alone; we’re not alone
Sometimes it can be comforting to know difficulties in working in this sector are felt by others. Especially as it’s still a little niche to describe yourself as a person who uses food as a lens or a tool to explore society. I know a lot of people who have that passion have also found little spaces on Substack to do just that. Spaces to keep themselves fed creatively, intellectually and hopefully to feed some others. I’m keen to explore ways we can help each other flourish and thrive. If this resonates, please do get in touch or leave a comment below…
Last night’s reading (round) with some tasty plum tart
Essential reading this week!
