Food Access Rider

Food is a need, a social occasion, and a source of pleasure. As dietary needs are acknowledged, food is increasingly taking on a medical role as well. Beyond traditions, habits, gatherings, and enjoyment, “medicalised” food becomes an everyday requirement for some bodies. Where accessibility is shaped in small and concrete details: sodium levels, carbohydrate and fat ratio, timing, portion size…

Sustaining accessibility in our own kitchen can be relatively easy. However, eating food that someone else cooked opens an unknown realm that may cause physical harm or a remarkable amount of stress for those with special dietary needs. When ingredients and processes become invisible somewhere between cooking, ordering, and serving, food can be felt as dangerous rather than social and pleasurable. Not because people do not care, but because the structure makes care hard to carry.

Individuals come up with their own questions, and professional kitchens often encourage this: ask what it contains, define your needs. However, the pathway of accessibility is sometimes more complex than that for some bodies.

The intention of this food access rider is to semi-structure the conversation for expressing needs and assessing capacity, while holding space for the conversation to continue.

This access rider is prepared for eaters to define their allergies and beyond allergy special needs. And also for cooks, to check if they can meet the needs and ground level information on certain terms. The hope is to hold a space for a conversation between eaters and cooks to turn things working.

The rider is developing and does not cover all the special dietary occasion and all the necessary information to prepare a suitable plate. Feedback inputs will be appreciated. And the rider certainly requires to be reshaped in different occasions, with different people and for different contexts.

Cheers to inclusive tables!