BACKGROUND

The Alliance for Dignified Food Support emerged from the Lewes District Food Summit in October 2022, catalysed by talks from Carl Walker on Hunger Trauma and Ronald Ranta on the concept of community supermarkets as an alternative to food banks. These discussions resonated deeply within the community, sparking a call for action to redefine the narrative around food support. Recognising the urgent need to embed dignity in the provision of community food support, various local groups asked Lewes District Food Partnership to take this piece of work forward.

Over the following year, the project gained momentum as Jane Perry, author of Emergency Use Only and co-founder of Fitzjohns community food project in Lewes, joined the team. Drawing on the insights of individuals with first hand experience of food insecurity, as well as input from volunteers and project coordinators, the initiative began to take shape. 

In 2022 and 2023 we hosted a series of workshops at Kingston University, funded by the British Academy, with a range of community food support providers, focused on the issue of dignity. The workshops identified considerable variation in community food provision across (and even within) different local areas, together with the practical and ethical challenges such projects face. Community food support organisations vary significantly in organisational structure, philosophy, eligibility criteria and operating procedures, as well as the amount and types of food provided.  They are often predominantly, if not completely, dependent on surplus and donated food, which creates significant challenges with supply.  The amount of training and support that staff and volunteers receive is variable, and training is often more focused on how to complete practical tasks, such as filling bags with food, than on the intricacies of interpersonal communication. If a community food support organisation is primarily staffed by staff and volunteers who do not themselves have lived experience of food insecurity, they may inadvertently engage in interactions that do not dignify those who are asking for help. This lack of consistency means that ensuring a standard of dignified support and care across the food support sector is extremely challenging. 

By late 2023, the project had garnered national attention, attracting the support of national stakeholders. This led to a further series of roundtable meetings and one to one consultations with a range of stakeholders including the Independent Food Aid Network, Trussell Trust and Brighton and Hove Food Partnership. These conversations ultimately led to the formation of an alliance, with prominent organisations such as Feeding Britain, Church Action on Poverty, Your Local Pantry, and Sustain joining forces to raise awareness of this issue. We are particularly grateful to Sabine Goodwin of IFAN for her constructive feedback and to Niall Cooper and Gav Aitchison at Church Action On Poverty for their notes on structure and tone. 

What happens next?

Together, the Alliance have embarked on a collaborative journey, focusing on developing core principles aimed at embedding dignity into community food provision. Through extensive consultation and evidence-based research, we have developed a set of Principles and Recommendations designed to promote good practice. These recommendations, while not prescriptive, offer a flexible framework for organisations to adopt, adapt, and evaluate according to their unique circumstances and community strengths and needs.

We recognise that every organisation is at a different point on their journey to centre dignity, and more still may be adopting some of the following recommendations alongside an exit strategy. As an alliance we do not believe that community food support, no matter how dignified, is the solution to food insecurity in the UK. However, at the moment, thousands of community food support organisations are in operation, and our aim is to support you to make your practice as dignified as possible.