Towards Transformative Change: Grass-roots Innovations for Food Security During Crises in Brighton & Hove, UK

This Working Paper analyses the emergence and evolution of three community-led initiatives focused on food insecurity, with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the ensuing cost-of-living crisis as the backdrop. These initiatives are located in the city of Brighton & Hove, in the United Kingdom (UK), and include: Chomp, a free holiday lunch club catering to families on low incomes; Rock Farm, a community space and horticultural therapy project located in the outskirts of the city; and Brighton Food Factory, a social enterprise initially conceived as a warehouse for storing gleaned food from local farms and processing it into affordable ready-to-eat meals for low-income individuals. Guided by social innovation theory, the paper explores the significance of the crisis context in prompting innovation and outlines benefits and challenges associated with these grass-roots innovations. It also discusses the transformative potential of these innovations, and how they support conditions that can drive broader social change in the future. While currently challenged by dwindling resources and rising needs, in the context of the cost-of-living crisis, these projects are examples of how local connections and community embeddedness are important elements driving innovations that are responsive to emerging needs. Although small in scale, these innovations are building individual and collective capacities, strengthening networks, and helping to reimagine local food relations.