Food for Thoughts
Where people who wouldn’t otherwise meet, get to have conversations we wouldn’t otherwise have…
FOOD FOR THOUGHTS is a monthly event series at the Braich Goch spanning autumn and winter 2021. Working with our fabulous interns - three young adults from diaspora communities in Wrexham- we are working as a team to put together 4 events that explore our relationships to land and to each other through food.
Unfortunately our last event has been postponed due to covid, check out our video update below:
Food for Thoughts Event Series
A big thank you to everyone who has helped make the Food for Thoughts Event Series happen.
-
Our volunteers in the bar and kitchen
-
The speakers at our second event- Jâms Morgan, Ioan Beechey, Theresa Jones and Gareth Davies.
-
The performers: Cynefin and Osian Morris.
-
Kait Leonard for facilitating our panel.
-
The friends from displaced and dispersed communities who added their voices to the third event.
Event 1
Maeth i'r Meddwl/ Harvest Celebration!
Our first event was a harvest celebration, and a chance to get to know each other, where we asdked the simple question “What does growing food mean to me?”
We ate a delicious meal cooked from locally donated produce and watched a short documentary to help get the conversation started. We then broke into groups to discuss what food related concerns mattered to the people in the room. We brought these ideas together to inform our following events.
Event 2
Maeth i'r Meddwl/ The Welsh Context
Our second event was an opportunity to hear from local food producers about the issues facing farming in mid-Wales in 2021. We invited a panel of those involved in food and forestry to share with us, discussing topics such as the impact of Brexit on the local food industry, what policies need to change to improve conditions and revenue, generational issues and inheritance, and the mental health crisis in farming.
Event 3
Maeth i'r Meddwl/ Food Journeys and Migration
Food moves across borders freely, but people do not, why?
We are living in a global world where we are all linked by technology. However, this 'linkage' is superficial, as most people of the global south cannot travel across borders without visas, but the food we produce can.
The third in our series of events explored the journey of migration that we have taken. We, people of refugee and migrant backgrounds, who have come to live in Wales, wanted to explore with our local community the experience of migration from our own perspective: how we are perceived, the stereotypes linked to our diverse experiences and how we can demystify these together in dialogue; while sharing our food, music and cultures.
We used techniques of 'invisible theatre' to immerse our guests in an emotional understanding of the Hostile Environment. Those of us of dispersed and displaced backgrounds then shared some of our thoughts and experiences with the group before moving into a celebration of Latin American food and music.