Delivering participatory food systems research in our own communities: reflections about co-production by community food researchers and community partners

This article offers insights into delivering community-engaged research (co-production), from the perspectives of engaged citizens and community partners. It adds to scholarship addressing epistemic justice issues that the experiences of engaged citizens are rarely explored. The engaged citizens are community collaborators in FoodSEqual (a UKRI funded project aiming to co-produce solutions to food system inequality in four UK locations). During FoodSEqual’s delivery, it became clear contextual factors and practical delivery varied. To support shared learning, an in-person reflective session was held using the ‘open space method’ (Involve, n.d) (participants: Community Food Researchers (CFRs) (n=14), community coordinators (n=6)). Four key themes were defined during the session. A content analysis of observational notes was undertaken by a PhD Student (HG) and CFR (MR). Resulting outputs were checked with most of the original participants. Four areas identified as instrumental to successful community co-production were: 1. Engagement and building trust; 2. Co-designing practical research activities; 3. Balancing structure and flexibility; 4. Community engagement outside activities. Implications for practice include mitigating tensions between different ways of working, the need for better understanding and acknowledgement of community roles, and proposals for how the engagement model itself can contribute to food system transformation.