Edible Communities

Project Leader: Inês Neto dos Santos, Nora Silva

Number of participants: 8-10

Duration: 5 days

Edible Communities is a project focusing on exploring the values of food in a community context, exploring the dinner table as a platform for discussion, conversation and making.

The project embraces food as a universal language (needing no translation) and an invaluable tool in promoting collaboration, togetherness and collective growth.
Throughout the project, students will be encouraged to take reference and inspiration from their surroundings in order to build a communal space suitable for meal-time gatherings (and whatever else is deemed valuable).

Edible Communities will analyse the ecologies of community living, taking into consideration concepts of exchange, upcycling, locality and temporality, questioning their application and achievability in a social context – placing foodat its roots and using it as a vehicle for discussion and development.

Timetable:

Day 1 – First meeting: presenting Edible Communities; students and leader introduce each other and explain their interest in joining the project. We share our
experiences of food in a community environment.

Discussion about ecologies of community living, presentation of real-life examples at applying ideas of locality, seasonality and temporality (in regards to food but also other aspects of everyday living).

Plan our week: consider what steps to take in order to achieve our final goal: building a usable communal space and hosting an opening dinner for the RCA
community.
First sketches for the space. Start promoting the final opening of the space.

Day 2 – Exploring our surroundings: searching and collecting used/disposed materials suitable for recycling and building our communal space. Asking
questions/learning from the community in regards to use and application of materials for different purposes. Start building.

Follow up final event promotion. Planning a menu.

Day 3 and 4 – Building. Gathering ingredients and start preparing food (day 4).
Follow up promotion.

Day 5 – Final build day. Opening dinner at 7pm.