Read about how Vera's early experiences embedded a lifelong connection to food which eventually developed into a career; challenges she overcame and hopes for a sustainable food future.
What is your role at Sustain and how long have you worked here?
I have been the Local Action Coordinator at Sustain for the past 8 years. My role has involved coordinating campaigns and local action with Sustainable Food Places (our UK-wide network of Food Partnerships). I have supported our local networks to better engage with MPs and Government departments, which has massively helped politicians grasp the power of place-based action in transforming the food system. I have worked with the breadth of other programmes at Sustain, including Good Food Local and Bridging the Gap.
What made you choose a career in sustainable food and farming?
I have always had a close relationship with food and how it’s grown. I experienced food insecurity growing up in the Soviet Union, where shortages were common, and later in the US, where my family relied on free school meals and holiday food clubs. Foraging and food growing were a big part of life in Russia-collecting wild food and tending fruit trees on our estate was normal, and anyone could grow something on public land. Our Slavic culinary traditions also became a vital link to my roots, so I embraced cooking and growing as a way to stay connected to my identity. What struck me in both the US and UK is how much is lost when we’re disconnected from food, especially community food and growing, so rebuilding these relationships and fighting for a right of access has become a passion for me.
What was your route to Sustain?
My path into food was slightly off the beaten path. I originally planned to follow my father and become an artist, but even in art school I gravitated toward food themes, focusing on urban foraging and nature connection. I always wanted to work in the community, but the only routes into organisations combining food, community, and place-making were unpaid internships or a master’s-neither of which I could afford. So, I took various jobs in my 20s, volunteering on weekends and evenings where I could. When we moved to the UK, I got my break volunteering with the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership while waiting for my settlement visa. Director Vic Borrill took a chance on me, despite my lack of professional experience, and hired me to host food waste reduction and composting workshops, recognising my lived experience and passion for food issues.
Over time, my role grew to running a city-wide Food Use campaign, hosting a Feeding the 5000 event, and supporting figures like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I also co-founded a university food co-op, a surplus redistribution project, and the Sussex Gleaning Network. These experiences helped me connect local work with national advocacy, which I brought to my role at Sustain as Sustainable Food Places Campaign Officer. Vic supported my career every step of the way, and I’m always grateful to her for changing my life’s direction.
What do you like about your job at Sustain?
I think my strongest value is connection; as a neurodiverse person who loves reflecting on the interconnectedness of things, as an immigrant who finds belonging in forging connections with different people, and just as a friendly gal! Sustain’s gifts to the food movement include communicating the systemic nature of the food system and connecting people and places over a shared mission for change. This reflects my ideals and ways of working. I also love variety, and love working with diverse communities and stakeholders, as well as a diversity of food issues, from food insecurity, which is close to my heart, to supply chains, which I find exciting, and climate and nature - which is everything.
What do you find frustrating?
I’m frustrated by how undervalued and underfunded much of our local food systems work is. Many unsung heroes are driving change-setting up projects, shaping policy, and inspiring their networks-while those running groups and enterprises directly impact lives and often represent the communities they serve. Community-rooted food work deserves far more recognition and statutory support. Wales, through the Future Generations Act and the Welsh Community Food Strategy, shows how governments can recognise and mandate community-level food work as central to a thriving society.
What challenges or obstacles have you faced in your career or research and how have you overcome them?
I was privileged to attend university thanks to scholarships and loans, but the traditional career entry route of unpaid internships was beyond my reach and made me feel excluded from the food and environmental sectors. I still remember the sting of knowing, upon graduation, that I was excluded from the work I wanted to do. I still feel excluded from academic spaces, and hope one day to be able to pursue a Masters or PhD. I’m grateful that things have changed more recently and that our sectors are more proactive in offering opportunities for young people from minoritised and working-class backgrounds and those excluded from academic pathways.
What helped me back then to hold on to my goals was remembering what I’m passionate about, what I’m good at and what the world needs. There’s a Japanese concept of Ikigai, broadly defined as a ‘motivating force’ or ‘purpose in life’ and includes these three factors, plus what one can get paid for! And I held onto that sense of purpose, dipping into social, volunteering and free learning opportunities that reflected my interests and skills wherever I could.
What advice would you give to anyone that is passionate about sustainable food systems and wants to work in this sector?
Grassroots volunteering and personal involvement in food work are just as valuable as professional or academic experience, sometimes even more so. Having a clear sense of purpose that aligns with our sector is invaluable, and lived experience of food system barriers or harms should never be minimised. Whether it’s of food insecurity, diasporic (dis)connection, or the social and mental health safety nets that community food spaces offer; this is what changes hearts as well as policies.
My advice: get involved however you can, whether through a local food group, partnership, or by championing healthy food at work. Keep learning - I used to print out and read reports to better understand food system issues, and now watch or listen to talks while washing dishes after the kids are asleep. And of course, sign up to Roots to Work!
What has inspired your work in this movement?
The privilege of working with local networks and changemakers is my daily inspiration. I try to remember that my work is in service to our networks and to be there for them however I can. I love to help people recognise their leadership and best practice, and to boost their confidence to advocate for change. Seeing local actors, be they public health practitioners, community garden leads or network coordinators, step into their power and inspire others around them to make changes is what it’s all about, It’s the ripple effect of change from the ground up!
What are your hopes for the future?
Many organisations, like New Local, are pushing for a big shift in the UK so that communities have more power and residents help create solutions for their own areas. Community action and representation are central to Sustain’s programmes like Sustainable Food Places and Good Food Local, where local governance is a major focus. The Labour Government is also working to give more power to local and regional authorities. I’m hopeful this means food governance and supply chains will become more local. However, there are real risks. Devolution shouldn’t just move power to larger regions and weaken the voices of villages, towns, or city wards. There’s also a risk that local communities could become more vulnerable to corporate interests and extractive, profit-driven food supply chains. True community power needs proper investment and equity. Having lived under both centralised, state-driven and market-driven systems, I believe a better, community-focused approach is possible.
