Meet the team behind Bristol Food Connections:
Lorna Knapman
Creative Director
Lorna is a food-loving mum on a mission. An ambassador for good, ‘real’ food, nature and the countryside, she has been passionately working to change the way we think about and eat food for years. In 2008, Lorna founded her flagship event – Love Food Festival – nearly 70 events have taken place since, highlighting and supporting local producers and teaching children about the wonders of food and its relationship with the earth. It’s Lorna’s vision, creativity and event experience that is behind the inspirational programme of events.
Highlight from last year - the way in which the whole city worked together for the greater good and showed what can be done when we collaborate.
Contact Lorna: [email protected]
Sidharth Sharma
Operations Director
Sidharth has combined his two lifelong passions, food and music, by setting up and establishing multiple, award-winning businesses in those sectors. He has spent the last 20 years creating strong, resilient brands and developing winning strategies. The common theme that runs through all his various projects, past and present, are the concepts of: sustainability, innovation and social benefit. This of course includes Food Connections!
Contact Sid: [email protected]
Kalpna Woolf
Business and Community Manager
Whilst in her role as Head of Production at the BBC, Kalpna oversaw a multi-million pound media business including working creatively with food programme teams. Building partnerships with the Bristol community was also an important part of her role. She is busy bringing businesses together to fulfil her passion to empower and unite all of Bristol Communities.
Highlight from last year - the open doors at the Sikh Temple - people from all cultures and backgrounds from across Bristol coming together to share food and talk together. A great and memorable event.
Contact Kaplna: [email protected]
Aine Morris
Sponsorship manager
Aine brings over 10 years of communications and project management experience to her work with sustainable food systems in the UK. Most recently, she has been directing special communications projects for the Sustainable Food Trust, organised the Soil Association’s Organic Food Festival, and designed the food systems diploma for the School of Artisan Food. Joining Bristol Food Connections as sponsorship manager in 2015, Aine is excited to support the festival in establishing long-term relationships with the organisations and businesses that support our ideals. Aine is also a mother, vegetable grower, and fermentation enthusiast.
Contact Aine: [email protected]
Aisling Mustan
Marketing Manager
Aisling has over ten years clocked up in PR, marketing and communications experience (agency, in-house and freelance). She specialises in building brands, devising and implementing PR and marketing strategies for a wide range clients with a particular focus on the events and service industries.
Contact Aisling: [email protected]
Melissa Kidd
PR Manager
Melissa will be working hard to ensure that the festival becomes increasingly famous - on the regional, national and international stage. Bristol is bursting with inspirational stories of people doing great things with food and drink. Melissa will make sure that these stories aren’t Bristol’s best kept secret but are told widely – so that others feel moved and want to connect with good food too. Melissa has been writing, talking and learning about food for over ten years and this year she won the BR&nd You award for Media Relations.
Melissa says: “Good Food in my mind is food that has a story. It’s food that is as natural as possible. It’s happy (ie reared or grown with care), not necessarily beautiful, but full of flavour. It often means I want to eat more of it.”
Contact Melissa: [email protected]
Jenna Ansell
Event Production Manager
Jenna helps make the nuts and bolts of the event happen and turns all the fantastic ideas of the team into the reality you see on the ground during the event. Food is her greatest passion and she is proud to work on an event that teaches people about food, food sustainability and the incredible producers and products of our region.
Highlight from last year’s festival - the moment when our pizza chef from Naples emerged from our pop up pizza restaurant and serenaded everyone with classic Italian songs.
Contact Jenna: [email protected]
Gemma Thorogood
Event Production Manager
Gemma is busy stimulating ideas for events across the whole city and works within the communities to make them happen. She has worked in production on festivals and events, mainly on food projects for the past five years and loves working creatively with food. She finds pleasure in how it can bring people together and how many extraordinary things there are out there to eat!
Highlight from last year’s festival - Cook ‘n Converse with the Single Parent Action Network at Silai for Skills in Easton. Such a stimulating conversation and a triumph by all involved.
Contact Gemma: [email protected]
Ceri Wills
Event Assistant
Ceri ties up all the loose ends and makes sure we’re keeping on top of all of our projects, events and initiatives. She’s the one who knows absolutely everything that’s going on.
Highlights from last year’s festival - the J3 market was definitely a favourite, it was just fantastic to see a community come together around food in an otherwise under-used and under-appreciated space. The energy at the producer and street food markets in the city centre was incredible, and I don’t think I can miss out the launch night at Eat Drink Bristol Fashion.
Contact Ceri: [email protected]
Becci Sargent
Editor
Becci has worked as a writer and editor for the last 10 years. She is currently the editor of the West Country FOODLOVER magazine, as well as working on other food-related projects. It’s Becci’s job to bring the festival to life through words, both on the website and in this year’s programme.
Highlight from last year - seeing the festival come to life on the Bank Holiday weekend and wondering around in awe at the sheer volume of people and food!
Contact Becci: [email protected]