From Crisis to Resilience

On Friday 2^nd July the Feeding Britain Network Gathering took place in Newcastle. The theme this year was “From Crisis to Resilience”. Partners from across the UK joined together to share good practice, workshop ideas, and help drive the affordable food movement to help foster resilient communities that can move people away from crisis.

The event was supported by a number of local organisations and Feeding Britain received a small amount of financial support from Gateshead Council from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Gateshead-based organisations were well represented, including St Chad’s Community Project and Feeding Families, and the event featured a new short Gateshead Food Partnership film about the ‘Beyond Foodbanks’ approach in Gateshead: see below.

Professor Greta Defeyter OBE, Chair of Trustees at Feeding Britain and Dean of Social Mobility Policy Engagement at Northumbria University, opened the day covering the data on food insecurity in the UK, showcasing the success of the Holiday Activities and Food programme, and making the provocation,

"You have to be resilient to live in poverty. Why do poor people have to be more resilient? We need to make our systems more resilient to lift people out of poverty. "

Andrew Forsey OBE, from Feeding Britain then gave an excellent overview of the policy levers Feeding Britain are working hard to push through, that will significantly increase the cash in people's pockets and reduce demand for food banks - such as their recent policy briefing about Universal Credit and the 5-week wait, and the petition they have launched to keep the link between free school meal entitlement and access to the Holiday Activities and Food Programme. Please consider signing - Petition for the Holiday Activities and Food programme - keep the link with Free School Meals

It was a privilege to share a little about Gateshead Food Partnership with Edie Miller from St Chad's Community Project and Wayne Dobson from Feeding Families. We showed our new film entitled 'Beyond Foodbanks' - click this link or see below.

"People often talk about alternatives to food banks, but I think what we've also tried to build is an alternative to the supermarket. I think any place which takes food - which is a human right - into the hands of the community, where its distributed by people who take care of each other and build the power of that community - in this day and age that's a miracle".

- Edie about St Chad's Community Project Market.

"We need to protect and invest in these community spaces alongside efforts to reduce poverty, because they do a different kind of work which, in my opinion, is just as important as tackling low incomes: they create a sense of agency and belonging that helps repair the long-term impacts of poverty."

- a bit from Gateshead Food Partnership Coordinator Nikki Dravers' talk.

Workshops and networking throughout the day gave lots of inspiration and practical advice from amazing projects around the UK - from sourcing food to funding to wrap-around support in community food projects. I was floored at the very start of the day to hear from Tim that in Leicester there are now no food banks, and that even the food clubs/social supermarkets are seeing their demand reduce as they provide all the financial advice to maximise incomes, and social support to help people through multiple issues that drive them towards need for food charity.

Finally, we were pleased to have Director of Public Health for Newcastle and Gatesehad, Alice Wiseman MBE, close the day by putting the day's discussions firmly in the context of Public Health and talk about work across Gateshead and Newcastle.

"From a Public Health perspective, our food system is impacting the health and wellbeing of our population more than any other single factor... Access to nutritious, affordable food underpins our health, dignity, and opportunity".

No better call to arms for us as a Food Partnership. If you haven't already, please consider signing our Food Charter and getting involved however you can: we need to work together.