One of the first lessons we’ve had to learn in this crisis is that running out of food is not a problem of supply. It’s a problem of distribution. £1bn worth of food that would otherwise be on the shelves, is in people’s cupboards and fridges.
Meanwhile, food banks up and down the country view the lockdown announcement with alarm. Will they get supplies from public donations or be able to buy them from the supermarket? How will they cope without the (often older) volunteers who are now not allowed to leave their home to work in them? Will they be allowed to stay open?
There’s no doubting the good intentions of the people who run and work in food banks. They have been picking up the pieces of ten years of austerity. But now, enough is enough.
It’s completely possible to give people money to buy food themselves if they have run out of cash. In Scotland, it’s called the Scottish Welfare Fund, and it’s just been more than doubled by the Scottish Government. It’s perfectly possible to issue people with a card to use in shops which the Government then loads with money. In Scotland it’s called Best Start Foods. It’s perfectly possible in the short term for GPs, schools and welfare agencies to hand out supermarket vouchers if people need them.
We have an amazing food distribution system. Cunningly, shops have been located near where people live, and most of them deliver. They are open much of the time. Let’s put the systems in place to ensure everyone can access the food distribution system on equal footing. It’s a matter of human dignity.
Making food banks inessential takes a little money, sure. To cover the cost of the food given out each year by Scotland’s food banks would be around £6-7m – 2% of the £350m investment in tackling poverty announced last week by the Scottish Government. [1]
To raise the incomes of the poorest 10% of the population of the UK by £30 per week and make a real dent on food insecurity would cost £10bn – 3% of the rescue package announced last week by the UK government.
And it needs a little work to imagine a Scotland without food banks – but rather less than imagining a national lockdown, a ban on weddings, rail renationalisation, no football, no church, no Olympics.
We’ve discovered that we genuinely are all in this together this time. So let’s not pretend that it is essential for people who have run out of money for food (who may themselves be vulnerable) to go to an agency to collect a voucher to take to another location when there’s little or no public transport to get a parcel of food which they haven’t chosen, often from an older volunteer who themselves should also be staying at home. And remember, the food itself has come from the supermarket where everyone else goes.
Let people stay home, and let’s get them the money they need to get the food they need to sit this one out.
Food banks are not essential, and it’s time to close them for good. We are all enlisted now.
—
ENDS
Contact
Pete Ritchie, Director: pete@nourishscotland.org.uk; 07794 610 148
About Nourish
Nourish Scotland is a charity working for a fair, healthy and sustainable food system in Scotland, and globally. We work across a wide range of food issues such as sustainable food production, healthy and sustainable diets, food insecurity, workers’ rights, short food chains and new entrants to food production.
Notes to the Editor
[1] Helping communities affected by COVID-19: £350 million fund to support welfare and wellbeing (https://www.gov.scot/news/helping-communities-affected-by-covid-19/)