Food as infrastructure: Universal Basic Services and Community Wealth Building

How can food systems be reimagined as part of the foundational infrastructure of a caring society? 

This roundtable will explore how Universal Basic Services (UBS) offers a framework for embedding food within broader public service ecosystems – from school meals and emergency provision to community kitchens, cooperatives, and publicly supported agriculture. 

We'll be joined by the incredible Ellis Lewis-Dragstra, who will produce illustrations from this discussion. A delicious free lunch will follow this discussion from 1-2pm.

In conversation with change-makers in Tower Hamlets, we’ll examine how local authorities and partners can move beyond emergency food responses to build more resilient, democratic, and just food systems. 

The session will bring together policymakers, organisers, and researchers to explore what a UBS-informed approach could mean in practice – and what it demands of local and national actors.

This is organised as a collaborative event by the Autonomy Institute and Wen, working to support the strategic collective goals of Tower Hamlets Food Partnership. 

Ellis Lewis-Dragstra is a self taught London based mixed media artist whose work blends Afro surrealism, social commentary, and visual storytelling to explore themes of identity, childhood, humanity’s connection to nature, and the subconscious mind. Working across paint, watercolour, photography, pencil, and digital illustration, Ellis bridges traditional and modern techniques to create layered, dreamlike compositions that feel both accessible and emotionally resonant. Rejecting rigid divides between “high” and “low” art, they invite audiences, especially those who might not see themselves as “art people” to connect with art without barriers, finding meaning in its details, humour, and depth. Alongside their studio practice, Ellis has exhibited widely across London, including at the Natural History Museum, and contributed to fundraiser exhibitions supporting Caribbean hurricane relief, Palestine aid, and UK food poverty initiatives. They have also led workshops for BAME children affected by trauma, using art as a tool for healing, self expression, and understanding the world and the self better. Ellis uses art as a lifelong way to process, question, and reflect on the world, creating work that sits at the intersection of the personal and the universal.