Food as a tool for community connection, advocacy, and system change.

What is Extended Table?

Extended Table is a project that uses the power of food to build social connection, strengthen relationships, and amplify community voices.

Through inclusive food-based activities, Extended Table works to create spaces that build understanding, support individual advocacy, and connect communities. In doing so, we aim not only to empower people locally, but also to influence wider systems change, ensuring that the values and priorities of communities shape the decisions that affect their lives. 

Alongside the Real Farming Trust, there are four project partners, all of which are directly engaged in marginalised communities across the UK at grassroots level: Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, Cyrenians in Edinburgh, NOW Group in Belfast and The Hornbeam Centre in London.  These are the 4 same partners that the Real Farming Trust collaborated with on the Ready Health Eat (RHE) project (2020-2023), all keen to continue working together at the intersection of food and social justice.

The project will be running for 5 years from Autumn 2025 and is supported by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Why this project?

• We believe in the power of strong, connected and diverse communities.
• We want to see dignity, equity and innovation in food provision, particularly within marginalised communities. 
• We believe that people with lived experience are best placed to advise on what changes are needed to their situations.

What difference will we make?

The Extended Table project is invested in system change, from the participants through to local and national communities and organisations.

Some of its goals include: 

• For participants to meet people they usually wouldn’t, to feel more connected with their community, and to be more empowered to take action to influence issues that matter to them.  
• For communities to be better able to reach new groups of people, and better able to advocate for their needs.
• For partner organisations to integrate lasting changes as a result of the programme and to be more equipped to support people from diverse backgrounds.
• To influence other organisations to take a social response to food needs and address social situations that reduce access to good food.

What will we do?

The partners are offering food activities in their communities, including community cafes, cooking classes, therapeutic gardening and pantries. The food activities bring people together, creating a meeting place from which to build community and amplify community voices. 

Each partner will recruit, train and support ambassadors to convey their community’s messages to people who hold the power to bring about changes. The partners will set up opportunities for them to address audiences locally and nationally.

The partners will work together to identify key issues and to work towards change in their sectors and beyond. They will do this by engaging, training and influencing other organisations to make interventions to address the issues raised by the participants.

Who are the partners?

Edinburgh Cyrenians:

• Edinburgh Cyrenians work with people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. 
• Their project activities include: providing social eating spaces for people to eat together and spend social time; running ‘chop and chat’ classes. 

Brighton and Hove Food Partnership:

• Brighton and Hove Food Partnership work across the area with groups addressing food insecurity 
• Their project activities include: holding therapeutic horticulture classes; teaching University level courses delivered in the community for free.

The NOW Group:

• Lead on Extended Table project management and reporting.
• The NOW Group works with neurodiverse people and people with learning disabilities in Northern Ireland. 
• Their project activities include: delivering sessions to students with learning difficulties in integrated schools across Northern Ireland covering modules such as bakery, digital and building networks for future; facilitating events bringing students, local community and activists together to eat and have open discussion. They will help young people widen options when leaving school.

Hornbeam Community Centre:

• Organic Lea and their sister project the Hornbeam Centre run an organic community farm and community centre in London. 

• Some of their project activities include: delivering community cafe sessions for the local community to gather and eat; running solidarity supermarket sessions to provide affordable food to locals.

Measuring and sharing what is learnt

The Real Farming Trust is responsible for evaluation and communications: identifying, documenting and sharing learning arising from the programme to ensure findings are most effectively used to influence wider change in food systems and beyond.

We are using various evaluative methods to reveal and understand the issues arising including a formal Social Return on Investment (SROI) process, Photovoice (as in Twinning), and a collection of longitudinal personal narrative surveys.

We are using evidence-based, participant-led communications to empower partners’ communities with tools and resources to advocate for the changes that matter to them; and build broad and diverse audiences, to expand and diversify conversations around agroecology, community work and social justice.

Watch this space for updates as the project develops through its first year