Hello Wonderful Humans! 

Thank you for joining us on Friday 14 July 2023 to discuss Greater Manchester food sovereignty. As this was the initial gathering, we wanted to focus on getting to know each other, foster connection and have some fun! After reading this email, please take 5 minutes to complete this survey. Your answers will inform how we plan future gatherings. The survey link is here. 

It was wonderful to hear what your passions are. It was impressive to learn how you contribute to your communities in your various roles. The power and range of abilities we share collectively is truly amazing.

When asked what makes a successful group, we came up with the following:

-  Active listening

-  Respectful

-  No apologising (for your views)

-  Feel free to take up space

-  Teamwork 

-  What we share about our personal lives is confidential

-  Have fun

-  Share a meal

Some themes that came up throughout the day:

-          The importance of acknowledging our worth & time

-          We can’t pour from an empty cup

-          There is no need to rush our decision-making process, we have time to be creative, and work together to come up with ideas on how we can support food sovereignty in Greater Manchester (Think slow food movement, Slow human movement)

-          It’s important to self-reflect on how we can individually commit to a group

-          Group size, we want it to be open, but also not get too large that it’s challenging to make decisions

For future meet-ups:

-          To keep momentum, a monthly meet-up

-          Having a calendar of dates for meet-ups and wider engagements across Greater Manchester was suggested

-          Incorporate fun & food at each gathering

-          We rotate facilitation of the meet-ups

-          Nurturing, social, not something that is another ‘chore’ we have to attend

-          Think about what we can give and what we can gain from the group

-          Create a manifesto

-          Do we want to have a group name?