Education Incubator Communications Intern Priyankha Khindri finds out more about Exeter Digest.

This year the Education Incubator has collaborated with the Provost Office to fund a student-led anti-racism and inclusivity project. After a rigorous process a group of MA Creativity students were awarded funding for their idea to host a food and culture festival: Exeter Digest – pun very much intended!

Exeter Digest is a food and culture festival bringing together international students, home students, and local communities within Exeter to share and exchange culture and identity by eating together. The ethos behind the festival is to explore how food and eating have different meanings and rituals across different cultures. 

The master’s students call themselves Project Momo after the Nepalese dumpling – Momo – also known as a Bao, which has a rich and varied history. Dumplings themselves are a food that appears in almost all cultures across the world in a variety of shapes and sizes like the Indian samosa or Italian ravioli. As a group of international students, they wanted to take the opportunity to unite the wide variety of cultures that coexist in the local and student populations of Exeter. The best way to do this? Through food, of course. 

The Project Momo team were inspired by other food festivals across the world such as Karachi Eat – a three day long food festival in Pakistan that attracted over 300,000 people in 2018. The team wanted to use food to unite people in Exeter in a similar way. 

St. Sidwell’s Community Centre, an organisation dedicated to celebrating culture and heritage in Exeter, is partnering with the Project Momo team. St. Sidwell’s Community Centre will host the Exeter Digest Festival in their centre. Project Momo will be setting up a space designed with activities to encourage festival goers to interact, chat, and of course eat together.

There’s room for everyone around the Exeter Digest tables and there’s still plenty of time to get involved either as a vendor or as an attendee. 

If you want to get involved email: exeterdigest@gmail.com

To get your taste buds tingling, be sure to follow the Exeter Digest Festival Instagram and Facebook page for updates. 

SLAR Projects Student Students Anti-racism creativity culture Exeter food inclusivity