In today’s society, our understanding of where our meals come from and the journey they take to reach our plates is often limited—further obscured by urban expansion distancing us from local sources. Moreover, access to food is unevenly distributed, disproportionately affecting minority groups whose roles in the food supply chain are often overlooked.

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This project extends from my research Where are we in-between the food chain?, shifting focus toward the intimate act of tracing ingredients within a meal. During a community engagement workshop in fishing households of Barangay Baybay and Barangay Dumolog in Roxas City, Philippines, I invited local villagers to map each ingredient from their daily dishes—from plate back to origin. The task was deceptively simple: to see how far they could trace their food to its source.

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The results revealed unexpected insights. Despite living in fishing communities, not a single participant reported using fish caught in their own village. Even families with members working as fishermen rarely consumed their own catch. Instead, most households purchased fish from the central market in Roxas City, several kilometers away. This revealed not only a gap in food accessibility but also the absence of a local fish market within the village itself—underscoring how traditional livelihoods are marginalized in everyday consumption patterns and excluded from broader food narratives.