Anwar Arif

My name is Anwar Arif, and I am from Pakistan. I have a master’s degree in Human Resource Management and have worked professionally as a manager in my home country. I have been in Glasgow since 2019. In Scotland, I am actively involved in various communities to contribute my experience. What I have to gain from volunteering with the Nourish project is the opportunity to make a positive impact in the lives of others and contribute to the betterment of my community. I am eager to collaborate with like-minded individuals, build meaningful connections, and gain a deeper understanding of mental health and well-being issues. Ultimately, my goal is to help create a supportive and inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and lead fulfilling lives.

Clara Schade-Poulsen (she/her)

My passion for sustainable food systems has driven me to found an urban food-growing project, work on regenerative farms, and currently establish a landscape regeneration project. Through these experiences, I have both participated in and facilitated various participatory processes. I joined the MPP to support others with what I have experienced is crucial for lasting change: placing communities at the heart of it. You can often find me tending my allotment, in the hills, and spending time with loved ones.

Geri Sinclair

My name is Geri Sinclair and I have worked in community development since 2012 after a career as a solicitor. I am a Permaculture educator and facilitator. My experiences and learning has shown me that working in partnership and sharing knowledge and skills delivers more creative and sustainable change to create resilient and thriving communities. I joined the MPP to support this change as it is vital people are heard and properly consulted.

I am a mother and grandmother and want to be part of the change needed now and for future generations.

Glory Omoaka

I am Glory Omoaka, a mum of two with a background in healthcare and a graduate of Stirling University.

I am an anti-poverty campaigner based in Glasgow, Scotland. I have been a part of many successful campaigns for change, and I am passionate about speaking up for equality and justice, especially on issues around food insecurity, healthy eating, education, and immigration. As someone who has experienced powerlessness, homelessness, and challenges, I want to continue to use my lived experience and my voice to advocate, amplify, and take action whenever change needs to be achieved.

I am part of MPP just so that I can have the opportunity to do all the beautiful stuff that can bring smiles, peace, and harmony to humanity. My experience has shown me that change is possible and achievable.

Max McDonald

My name is Max (they/them), I’m 21, and I live in Dundee where I study Psychology with Spanish. I do activism work in various areas such as trans rights and domestic abuse advocacy, and this work is what inspired me to join the Meaningful Participation Panel. I think having good representation for all voices and ensuring they are truly heard in decisions that concern them is incredibly important and I am honoured to support this work.

The Meaningful Participation Panel provided advice on the design of materials to recruit people with lived experience of food insecurity to join a project.

The project: Dignity Dialogues

The Dignity in Practice project involves people who design, deliver and take part in responses to food insecurity.  We use workshops and peer support activities aimed at promoting dignity and human rights. Since 2016, we have been working alongside people that work or volunteer in community food projects.  We support them to use the Dignity Principles in these proje A key part of our work is to make sure people with experience of food insecurity take part in this process.

Last year we ran Dignity Dialogues in three local authorities.  Our aim was to investigate possible ways to prevent and respond to food insecurity. We worked alongside paid Community Advisors, people with lived experience of accessing food support services, such as pantries, larders and food banks. Then we organised a meeting to bring together local community food workers, the community advisors and local “decision makers”. The aim of the meeting was to discuss and plan ways to improve local responses to food insecurity.

Why did you decide to work with the MPP?

Our previous attempts to recruit people with lived experience of food insecurity to be involved in the Dignity Project were not always successful. We knew we had to change our approach to help the Dignity Dialogues project to succeed.

We wanted to understand how we could improve our recruitment practices so that people with lived experience would want to be involved as Community Advisors in the project.

To help with this, we approached the Meaningful Participation Panel (MPP).

We arranged a meeting to go through the recruitment materials we had used in the past as well as new ones. These included a draft recruitment application form, posters and leaflets. The MPP reviewed these materials and provided constructive, detailed feedback.

The MPPs advice:

They MPP highlighted the importance of simple language, to be clear about what the role of a Community Adviser would entail, and how to ensure that everyone would feel genuinely included and listened to.

They noted that in previous leaflets and documents we had used ‘human -rights’ language which could potentially make people feel intimidated or unsure. Instead, they advised to take out the word ‘rights’ and provide specific information that people would find useful or interesting. For example:

• Making it more evident that this was a paid opportunity, highlighting the that we see Community Advisors as experts by experience
• Clearly stating that the only requirement to be a Community Advisor were to live in the area and have experience of using food pantries
• Clarifying  what people might gain out of joining these conversations, the time commitment involved and how to apply.
• Including pictures of past engagements so people could see what the meetings looked like, and the diversity of people involved.
• Adding a QR code to find out more which also included a video explaining about the project
• Ensuring we didn’t use a generic email. Instead to include the name of the person to contact if somebody was interested in taking part.

How the MPPs advice helped us

The recruitment materials developed with the MPP were key to our success. There was a high number of people applying to take part in the Dignity Dialogues. Our target was 12 participants per local authority which was achieved, in some cases we had over 30 applications submitted.

This highlights the importance of working together with people with lived experience when designing inclusive engagement materials.

Promotional flier used in Aberdeen and discussions in progress with recruited participants:

The Meaningful Participation Panel helped shape and design the delivery of a series of Popup Suppers to raise awareness for Public Diners.

The project: Public Diners

Public Diners is a campaign to reintroduce state-supported restaurants back into the UK. They are a place where everyone in the community can affordably visit to access healthy and sustainable food, as part of the state’s responsibility to realise our Right to Food. Much like public schools, healthcare, parks and libraries, we believe Public Diners should be a piece of state-funded infrastructure.

As part of the campaign, we are running a series of “Popup Suppers” across Scotland to raise interest inPublic Diners. These suppers will also be inviting members of the community to take part in imagining what a Public Diner may look like. Co-creation is a core element of the initiative, and engaging the public through our Popup Suppers is part of the ongoing effort for Public Diners to be an idea designed with people, not for people. Because of their reputation of being experts in participation, we decided to work with the MPP to advise us on the design of the first Popup Supper.

Working with the MPP

An initial online session introduced the Public Diners concept to the group. This helped us get started straight away with planning the first Popup Supper over an in-person workshop. During this two-hour session, the panel gave specific advice, providing us with clear, tangible next steps for improving the signup process, making the event itself more accessible, and suggestions to collect better feedback from the evening. Having panel members in a room together, in conversation, created a creative, energetic space which prompted a lot of momentum and inspired lots of new ideas.

During this session, the MPP helped brainstorm ideas for whom to invite, how and where to get the word out, and potential venues for future suppers. The panel also shared specific contacts to get in touch with through personal connections.  

From personal experience, panel members shared various ways for the event to be more inclusive. One panel member reflected how, as a mother, “kids for a quid” would be attractive for affordably taking the family out for dinner. Another member with experience of being a migrant noted the importance of being able to pay in cash for those without a bank account and to allow for people to show up on the day, while someone else emphasised also being able to pay in advance online, to accommodate to those who prefer to plan ahead. It was suggested that for those with neurodiversity or particular food preferences, knowing the menu in advance would make it easier for them to make the decision to attend the event.

The MPP advised us on how to ask better questions to engage guests in the feedback survey after the supper. Rather than asking “was the meal affordable?” the panel suggested changing the wording to “how did you feel about the cost of the meal?”. This open-ended question enabled responders to engage more deeply for feeding back the affordability of the meal, giving us more qualitative insights. The panel designed a new question which asked guests “what were two things that would need to be at a Public Diner for you to be a regular visitor?”. This raised new ideas for Public Diners as a piece of state infrastructure which we did not think of, such as being open after school at 4pm, and having clean, accessible bathrooms.

How the MPP’s advice helped us

Working together with the MPP helped us implement care in planning the details of the first Popup Supper, designing the event to be as accessible as possible. It was valuable to have the MPP’s expertise on how to engage people, as many of the panel members themselves have experiences facing problems with participation.  The diversity of panel members meant insights into different, marginalised, and sometimes contradictory perspectives. Listening to their advice helped us realise how there is not a one-size-fits all approach for designing an inclusive event. It was important to have direct conversations with the people we want invite, to better understand how we can enable their involvement. Designing the Popup Suppers with the panel felt like a safe space to discuss more sensitive topics and ask the “wrong” questions, to allow us to make adjustments and get things right before the event.

Beyond the planning for the Popup Supper itself, working with the MPP also helped us turn over ideas and reflect on the Public Diner initiative more broadly, doubling the value of the consultations. Brainstorming ideas for the Popup Supper translated into concept designs for Public Diner and helped set the foundation for the broader initiative.

Moving forward, the MPP will be continuing to advice on delivering Public Diners, designing public consultation sessions to co-design institutional standards for Public Diners.