Beyond the Food Bank
How to deocouple food surplus from food poverty.
On the 9th of January, the Manchester Food Board represented the City of Manchester at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC). The day focused on how we can ensure the people of Manchester have access to the food they need right now while also building a strong, resilient, sustainable food system for tomorrow.
The FFCC are a charity that focuses on implementing recommendations to help shape and transform our food system. They advocate for healthier food, farming and countryside that works for everyone. Their levers for change are ensuring funding and investment are made in areas that will make the most impact.
Planning for the future
The session took place in the Sale West Community Centre. They very kindly served us a wonderful warm lunch and were incredibly welcoming and kind. However, the problem we were there to speak about was on full display at the community centre. As we were enjoying our warm lunch, the Bread and Butter Thing were giving out their parcels of food to the community in an adjacent room. We got to see first-hand how important alternative food infrastructure is to these communities - but also - why current solutions will have negative long-term effects. Relying on donated food means that people do not have a choice of what they are eating. This has knock-on effects on health, cultural identity and mental health. Food is an incredibly personal and powerful choice; removing agency over this choice can be damaging.
The session in Sale was focused on answering the question ‘Where should funding be targeted to move towards a future without food banks?’. To do this we utilised the three horizons framework which is a structured way of thinking to help future-proof policies and decisions. This is done by having a transition system that implements a few new ideas to bridge the gap between where we are now and where we ideally want to be. This moves policy from just being concerned with the short-term provision for the food security crisis to considering policies that deal with the long-term structural causes.
The three horizons framework also allows councils to implement solutions even if they are not perfect but are ‘good enough’ with the promise that this is not the final solution and there is room for iteration.
The other attendees were a mixture of national and regional voices. There were representatives from food banks, academics, FareShare and funders all coming together to brainstorm solutions. A running theme of the day from community leaders was how food banks and pantries form communities and impact lives beyond just supplying much-needed food. They create a touch point for people to find out about other community services and build local networks. The group agreed that as we move beyond the food bank it’s important not to lose this vital connection and there should be another way this can be forged. The ideal would be that people are coming to community spaces because they want to, not because they need to.
We were all in agreement that any funding should go to regional and local interventions that have a holistic approach to the food system along the entire supply chain, including waste streams. What these interventions would look like however was a more contentious topic. Local and community teams made a strong case that they needed more resources and staff to be able to make vital changes to the system.
Another topic which was discussed was moving beyond viewing food waste as ‘waste’ and more into an understanding of re-using ‘surplus’ while reducing over-ordering, consumption and production. This was coupled with a discussion on how ‘Food Poverty’ is just ‘Poverty’ and interventions need to focus on ending poverty and its causes, rather than providing food.
The MFB would like to thank both Sale West Community centre and the FFCC for a great day. It was wonderful to be a part of an interesting and diverse conversation about the future of the food system and to represent Manchester’s interests.