CRPR Seminar: Hannah Jones McVey: Children, The Food System and the Question of Belonging

This is a hybrid event - please contact CRPR@exeter.ac.uk for the Teams Link.

What does it mean for a child to feel belonging within the food system, and in the working countryside that sustains it? And why does that matter?

The concept of belonging feels increasingly important in a context where rural–urban tensions remain pronounced, and where wider cultural and socio-economic divides shape how land, food and countryside spaces are perceived and accessed. Belonging that strengthens the relationship between self, place, food and nature carries implications far beyond a day on a farm. Its impact can be profound: supporting mental and physical wellbeing, building confidence, deepening food and ecological literacy, and enabling young people to navigate the complexity of our food system with curiosity and confidence. These capacities should not be accidental by-products of geography or circumstance. Yet fostering this kind of belonging, particularly for children experiencing disadvantage, requires far more than access alone.

Drawing on delivery experience from The Country Trust, this talk will examine the friction points between schools, working farms and policy frameworks, and reflect on what is, and is not,  changing systemically to support more inclusive engagement with food and farming. The session will invite reflection on how research, policy and practice might work together better to address the barriers that prevent children from feeling a genuine connection to the systems and the land that sustains us all.