[caption id="attachment_240" align="alignleft" width="300"] A packed house for the Good Food Charter workshop...[/caption] Thanks to everyone who came to the workshop last Wednesday evening to kick off the discussion on the ideas and issues we want to see included in Oxford's vision for Good Food! Kindly hosted by network member Turl Street Kitchen, around 30 people made it along with a variety of different perspectives on the city's food system. Amongst others we had winemakers, restauranteurs, landowners, farmers, a local box scheme, a college bursar, entrepreneurs, community groups, representatives of University and city sustainability teams, the Women's Institute, interested students from Oxford's universities and the Centre for Alternative Technology, and many enthusiastic and engaged Oxford residents! From this fine assemblage of people, five small discussion groups brainstormed for 30 minutes on one of five topic areas - fairness, health, community, local economy and environment - before presenting back to everyone else. In addition to identifying key issues for attention within each of the topic areas, the groups also discussed potential actions that individuals and businesses within Oxford could start taking to address some of the challenges to achieving a better food system. The quality of debate was high and we produced a lot of suggestions within a small space of time, from recipe cards to make good food easy and accessible for more people, to an Oxfordshire land trust for new farmers. Some of the critical questions around good food also received an airing, for example, how to balance achieving a fair price for producers and food workers, with a fair price for consumers that makes fresh food affordable to all. It was also great to see many of the workshop participants chatting after the event and making connections - one of Good Food Oxford's primary aims. We look forward to many more discussions and the new collaborations that might arise. We'll be writing all of the suggestions from this meeting into a draft Good Food Charter for Oxford over the coming weeks. If you couldn't make it on Wednesday, don't worry, you can still feed in now - just drop us a message - or wait to comment on the draft Charter in a few weeks' time.