2022-2023 / Senior Systems Designer / STREAT
“Whether we’re talking about climate, biodiversity, poverty, education, gender, economic policy – the food system is a through-line that connects everything, and it’s beyond time for those in power to realize it.”
From 2022–2023 I worked for STREAT as a Senior Systems Designer, Food Systems, leading development of a strategy for the future of Moving Feast, a network of social innovators collaborating for a connected, fair and regenerative Victorian food system.
Moving Feast has evolved significantly since I first interviewed STREAT CEO Bec Scott in 2020. The network has since undertaken 30+ projects for net zero food and circularity, clean and green food economies, and diverse and inclusive job pathways, among other themes.
The Moving Feast network is made up of eight core partners: CERES, Collingwood Children’s Farm, Common Ground Project, Community Grocer, Cultivating Community, Melbourne Farmers Markets, Open Food Network, and STREAT (lead partner). It has a social enterprise ‘backbone’, with aspirations to expand projects across sectors and disciplines over time.
The Moving Feast strategy promotes a Challenge-led innovation approach, taking a collaborative and directional approach to change. It was developed with partners, and through discussions with academia and industry, including food specialists and leaders in Challenge-led innovation application and critique. The strategy sets out funding, governance, processes, and infrastructure necessary to support systems-shifting networks like Moving Feast working for food system change.
In April 2023 I wrote an article on behalf of Moving Feast about the key role of government in supporting such networks, emphasising the need for a more systemic view of investment.
The strategy led to further philanthropic funding in late 2023.