At Eating Better we believe that it is impossible to transition towards a more fair, healthy and sustainable food system without addressing the deep inequalities and systemic issues that exist within the food movement. The current industrial food system is rooted in a history of mistreatment of marginalised people and people of colour and enclosure of common land for private gain. Much of the food that we consume comes off the back of exploiting land, natural resources and people, in particular marginalised communities. It is imperative to acknowledge how racism and oppression show up in all areas in the food supply chain from production to consumption. There is a broad context to be explored around racism and injustice in the history of food systems. We are dedicated to learning more about this important topic and examining how we can weave anti-oppression into our work.
While Eating Better has not been proactive about this issue in the past, we began this journey in 2023 and want to be transparent about where our organisation is. Although we are a small organisation, we are strongly committed to investing time and resources to lead and drive change on equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism.
We understand that diversity, equity and inclusion should not be seen as an optional extra but instead as critical to our organisational culture and work, our people and our influence across the Eating Better alliance and beyond. In the spirit of transparency we have included a list of commitments that we will be actively working towards in the coming years. We have started to explore what food justice means in our wider work and to learn from what our Alliance members are doing; we have gathered our first findings in this blog here.
As we continue to learn and make changes, we aim to update this statement in time and share our progress and milestones in hope of positively encouraging others within our sector to do the same.
Our people
Eating Better is an equal access employer. We are committed to creating an organisation that is accessible, fair, safe and inclusive, where everyone can feel like they belong and that they can succeed and thrive.
- We will work towards increasing the diversity of our staff, trustees, consultants, and collaborators that we work with.
- Ensure all staff and trustees understand the implications of this statement for their day-to-day work and for how they treat and support colleagues.
- Ensure all staff and trustees participate in regular DEI training in order to build confidence in language and practice. We will provide resources and learning material to new staff during their induction with Eating Better.
Our work
- We will embed our anti-racism and DEI principles into our projects, practices, campaigns and communications, making sure to platform voices that are underrepresented within the sustainable food and environmental sector.
We will appropriately pay individuals and groups from marginalised and underrepresented backgrounds for contributions to our work.
We will strive to find further funding to help promote diversity, inclusivity and anti-racism initiatives and seek to partner with organisations working on the intersection of food and anti-oppression issues.
Our culture
We will work to define our vision for a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture within Eating Better by learning, adopting practical reminders of the culture we want to create and by having conversations with those who do it better.
Our influence
As an alliance with over 60 members with a footprint across the UK and internationally, we set out to have an influence positive change more widely.
We will champion organisations and initiatives that are making headway in pushing for systemic change in the UK food system and beyond. We will also create opportunities for collaboration and explore intersectional ways of working.
Our progress
We aim to review our progress and actions linked to DEI every 6 months and provide a summary update here.
- We undertook training with Collaborative Future, which gave us a broad introduction to issues of equity, power and inclusion
- We have re-evaluated and amended our recruitment process and job adverts
- We have begun to embed inclusive communication principles into our internal and external communications, including using accessibility tools, alt text, captions and subtitles, and inclusive stock photography
- We have invited content from people and organisations from a range of backgrounds and experiences in our campaigns
Next Steps
- We will develop our approach to recruitment by attending a DEI recruitment workshop
We will include DEI as an item to team and project agendas to ensure our work passes through a DEI lens
We are piloting a celebratory campaign beginning in November 2023 showcasing healthy and sustainable dishes from different cultural holiday traditions
We will work on embedding DEI principles into our governance structure
Reviewed and approved by Trustees in January 2024