Take One Ingredient
Over the course of the last two years the Archive has been working on a joint outreach project concentrating on food, health and wellbeing with our partners Interference Art and Portland Basin Museum, supported by the Linbury Trust. Together we wanted to offer access to collections, get people participating online and make an age and dementia-friendly resource that works for everyone.
We found our way there through social media content, a loan project and co-curated exhibition, co-creation workshops and sharing practice.
Our project started in the depths of the Covid pandemic, where the need for dementia resources became more acute. Through many, many Zoom calls between collaborative artists, archive and museum workers we planned a range of ways to explore archives, spark conversations, and share ideas and memories onsite, online and face-to-face.
We kicked off online, with 12 social media films that got people talking on Twitter and inspired user generated content for the Sainsbury Archive website.
Next, the ‘Food Glorious Food’ exhibition at Portland Basin Museum (Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside) became an important space for connecting as Covid restrictions began to lift. This gave us an immersive environment for our face-to-face co-creation workshops with social prescribing, dementia and wellbeing workers, as well as veteran Sainsbury’s staff from the North East. It also gave us a venue for our wellbeing practice sharing days with museum and archive workers.
Our collaboration concluded with the production of a pilot physical ‘Food for Talk’ resource pack filled with Grab & Go activities to inspire conversations. Offering prompts for quick, easy reminiscence and sensory tools to connect and tips to engage from people who prioritise wellbeing in care settings. These wipeable, large print packs are available to staff (and families) in 16 care homes, 3 museums, 2 archives, a nursing and neuro rehabilitation, and through Tameside social prescription and wellbeing services.
Online workshops allowed us to consult with a National Activity Providers Association Wellbeing Manager and co-create with NAPA’s advisory group of care sector workers on the front line from Tyne & Wear to Suffolk to produce a free digital resource. This is designed to inspire conversations, offering prompts for quick, easy reminiscence and sensory tools to connect and tips to engage from people who prioritise wellbeing in care settings. Everyone can download our Food For Talk shopping memories digital resource here.
The resource is designed for everyone to use, not just care worker professionals. There are tips included in the pack to get everyone talking. It can be used on screen or printed off as a physical bundle.
Use the resource to:
- Explore photographs together to instigate conversations
- Investigate the memory prompter to pick out prompts to explore a food memory
- Scan the QR code to add shopping sounds for another sensory dimension
- Use other material from the Sainsbury Archive's website for further inspiration
Here’s what our care sector collaborators had to say…
“For reminiscence, we need to bring things forward and call them to mind. There is something for everyone in that pack; everybody eats, everyone has memories of where their food came from when they were younger.
You get something different every time - and in a group one person’s memory sparks something for someone else. We had a lot of fun and a lot of chatting. It works really well in a care environment because the people who are in care today have a lot to teach us.”
Food for Talk Project Acknowledgements…
In partnership with: the Sainsbury Archive and Portland Basin Museum (Tameside Council)
Co-created with: Sainsbury’s Veterans Association, National Activity Providers Association, Action
Together Tameside social prescribing and community wellbeing teams and Tameside Archives.
With thanks to: Sainsbury’s Veterans Association, The News (Sainsbury’s Veterans Association
print and online magazine), Louise Thompson (Museum Mindfulness), Museum of London and
Museum of Brands.
Supported by: The Linbury Trust
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