Food, Finance and Justice

Posted 14.11.2019

Stakeholder Managers attended the Food, Finance and Justice conference this month alongside Foodbank leads and a wide range of partners, including Department of Work & Pensions.  Central England Co-operative, one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK co-ordinated this event.

Co-operatives are interesting organisations and many argue they are as relevant today as they were over 140 years ago.  Interesting to note that the Co-operative Group was formed from the merger of many independent retail societies and their wholesale societies and federations. Back in 1863, twenty years after the Rochdale Pioneers opened their co-operative, the North of England Co-operative Society was launched by 300 individual co-ops across Yorkshire and Lancashire.  By 1872, it had become known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS).

The Co-operative values and principles embraced by today’s worldwide co-operative movement have evolved from the ideals of the early co-operators of the 18th and 19th centuries.  These principles give co-operatives their distinctive character, steering the Food & Finance event held this month.  Key principles include self help.  In cooperatives, people help each other whilst helping themselves by working together for mutual benefit.  Foodbanks across D2N2 embrace this principle, with practical examples of people helping each other to access the basics of life, establish social contacts and encouragement to develop and grow.

The Trussell Trust is a major Foodbank provider supporting people across D2N2: https://www.trusselltrust.org/what-we-do/how-foodbanks-work/

The State of Hunger is a three-year research project designed to provide the Trussell Trust, and the wider sector of stakeholders, with the evidence base required to make recommendations on how to address hunger in the UK. A wide range of methodologies will be employed to provide a better understanding of how many people are affected by hunger, which groups of people are most affected, where, and what drives people to use food banks. The results presented in this report will serve as a benchmark for the subsequent two years of the project.

STATE OF HUNGER REPORT

BBO is having a significant impact on individual lives, supporting people to increase their confidence, independence and achieve their employment aspirations.

See what our participants have to say in these case studies …

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