My Reflections on a Birkbeck Food Worker Health and Wellbeing Workshop

Over the past few months, Birkbeck College has hosted a ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ project bringing together food workers across the sector to discuss and co-design research on food worker health and wellbeing. One of the project participants, a restaurant employee with long experience in the sector, offers her reflections on the experience.

What moved me most was the participatory nature of the research. I felt that this wasn’t research happening about workers, but research happening with them. That distinction matters. I felt respected when lived experience was treated as knowledge. Too often, people’s stories are secondary to statistics. In this workshop, I felt that our voices were central.

Visibility Matters

When I attended the Food Worker Health and Wellbeing Workshop at Birkbeck on 12 September 2025, I didn’t quite know what to expect. What I felt, almost immediately, was relief that this conversation was finally being held in a way that centred people’s lived experiences. I felt seen in that space.

Food workers are essential. They feed the country. They sustain communities. Yet I felt that their health and wellbeing are often invisible  almost taken for granted. During the workshop, I felt the weight of how physically demanding and emotionally draining food work can be. Long hours, financial uncertainty, exhaustion, and the pressure to keep going regardless of personal strain  these are not abstract ideas. They are real experiences that affect real bodies and minds.

So Does Participation…

What moved me most was the participatory nature of the research. I felt that this wasn’t research happening about workers, but research happening with them. That distinction matters. I felt respected when lived experience was treated as knowledge. Too often, people’s stories are secondary to statistics. In this workshop, I felt that our voices were central.

I also felt a sense of connection in the room. There was honesty in the discussions about stress, burnout, dignity, and the challenges of balancing work with personal wellbeing. I felt encouraged by the openness and the willingness to acknowledge that improving the food system must include improving conditions for the people who make it possible.

Hope in Research

At times, I felt the emotional weight of it. Talking about health and work inevitably brings up vulnerability. But I also felt hope. Hope that participatory research can influence policy. Hope that workers’ voices will continue to shape decisions. Hope that wellbeing will no longer be treated as an afterthought.

For me, this workshop was not just an academic exercise. I felt it was a meaningful step toward recognising that food workers deserve care, protection, and dignity  just as much as the communities they serve.

I left feeling heard, valued, and cautiously optimistic about what comes next.