How can we engage more communities in conversations about food policy? This is a major challenge and a key question that drove policy research conducted for the UKRI FoodSEqual project.
At FoodSEqual, we worked closely with community organisations and local policy makers to co-produce policy recommendations, briefs, strategies and interventions for and with communities experiencing food inequalities. However, giving back to communities and disseminating our findings in ways that would engage them as well as a broader spectrum of actors in realising their agency for change in and for policy is also key!
We thus came up with the idea of Foodtopia: a novel, open access food policy video game, aimed disseminating the FoodSEqual policy findings in more inclusive, playful and accessible to a broader spectrum of audiences and communities in and outside the UK.
At Foodtopia, the player is the mayor of the city who visits different places, meets citizens and chooses different solutions to the challenges they face. What is unique about the game is that all solutions are based on the community policy recommendations that have come out of the FoodSEqual policy workshops and their policy briefs (see also Brighton and Hove Policy Brief; Reading Policy Brief)
So, by playing the game, players get to find out about our research and the types of changes that people would like to see in relation to food. But, they also realize that food policy is omnipresent and we should all have a say in shaping food policy.
Play Foodtopia to learn about and shape food policy!
Please also complete the survey linked to the game policy options.
To find out more, please contact Dr Katerina Psarikidou, the FoodSEqual Policy Lead based at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex (a.psarikidou@sussex.ac.uk).