Busy day today

Had a very hectic day today with the food bank project. Busy sending out invitations for our launch event on 2nd December.

For more information see:

http://communitiesfoodcic.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-on-our-promotion-day-2nd-december.html

Foodbank for Kent

The Foodbank for Kent website can be accessed here

Visit out blog:

http://communitiesfoodcic.blogspot.co.uk/

Foodbank for Kent: Progress

I am delighted to announce that Action with Communities in Rural Kent is supporting the development of a Foodbank for Kent. Our aim can be summarised in the following phrase: No-one should go hungry in the Garden of England.

The Foodbank for Kent project acknowledges the assistance it receives from Voluntary Action Within Kent.

To the seaside, well not quite.

Journeyed to Brighton today, or to be more precise, Moulescombe to visit FareShare Brighton.
Learnt a lot.

As I sallied forth from Sainsbury's in Tunbridge Wells to Brighton via Crowborough and Lewes it struck me that at one time it would have been quicker by train. Now it takes two hours to travel from Tunbridge Wells to Brighton, about the same time as the bus.

Why is it that Brighton, a major leisure and economic centre is virtually impossible to get to from West Kent by public transport in under two hours? After all it is only just over 30 miles away.

Foodbank for Kent

I received the following from Nick Chard. It is encouraging.

'Thank you for your interesting email regarding Fareshare's work and the diversion of food from landfill. This charity clearly serves a very important function of preventing waste, helping those in need, addressing food poverty, saving landfill space, and reducing landfill gas, as well as saving scarce resources and carbon. It is certainly a very worthwhile enterprise and I am pleased to note that it is expanding.

From my understanding of Fareshare's work, essentially it takes food which would otherwise be waste from food processors and other businesses and provides it for community use. Turning to my role here at KCC, as the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste, this covers the function of the County Council as the household waste disposal authority and therefore as you can see I have no remit in respect of waste food from business premises. In fact, the majority of Kent's household waste is being disposed of through the energy from waste plant at Allington and does not in any case go to landfill.

I agree that FareShare's objectives are extremely laudable and whilst landfill diversion is not an issue for KCC, I am sure that Fareshare's work will be of interest to other colleagues. In fact, during these difficult economic times, Kent has reviewed its priorities to place particular emphasis on supporting those who are disadvantaged and of course food poverty is closely linked to the well-being of our community. I will ask that the work of this charity is flagged to other directorates such as Children, Families and Education.'

More on Foodbank for Kent

Today, I took it upon myself to write to Nick Chard. He is a member of Kent County Council's Cabinet. My research through the labyrinthine KCC website led me to the conclusion that he is the person to contact about a Foodbank for Kent.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for a substantive reply to wing its way to me and its content. I shall keep you posted.

Foodbank for Kent update

A foodbank for Kent has been the subject of numerous posts on this blog. Progress towards the goal has been steady and recently a major Kent organisation has come on board to support the endeavour. At this stage I prefer not to name the organisation, but all will be revealed soon.

There is much to do, but I expect the pace to quicken!

I've been reet poorly.....

....as we say in Yorkshire. Too much heat, dehydration set in and, as it is said, the rest is history.
For the first time in months I did not put an item on this blog yesterday. Pleased to report that I am feeling much better as I write this.

Tomorrow is a booked holiday from work and I plan to use it to good effect to further the cause of a Foodbank for Kent. Should you be on Facebook, please visit the Foodbank for Kent page and join.

Frank Field

According to press reports David Cameron has lined up Frank Field, the Labour MP and former minister, to be his "poverty tsar" as he puts the fight against deprivation at the heart of his agenda.

I hope this story is correct.

Having pressed for a credit union for Kent I am now directing my energies to establish a foodbank in the county. There is a substantial number of people living in poverty in Kent. The Labour government failed to make any significant inroads into the problem. What is needed are radical changes which attack the many causes of poverty, rather than dealing with the symptoms.

Having worked amongst some of the poorest people in Kent and East London I recognise that there is no easy or quick fix to the problems. Reducing poverty significantly will take years to achieve.

I have supported the work of the Centre for Social Justice for a few years and broadly agree with its recommendations on poverty issues. It will be fascinating to watch as the 'Right' of UK politics makes progress on issues the 'Left' has failed to address.

Foodbank for Kent

There is clear evidence that some people in Kent people go hungry. Children, people on low incomes, older people, age is no barrier to food poverty. Nor is status or ethnicity. And yet, food manufacturers and retailers throw tons of perfectly good food away every day which ends up on landfill sites. It is a shocking waste of resources. It is an indictment of our society that anyone should go hungry.

It has become fashionable to 'knock' Christians. Yet it is Christian groups which day in and day out are meeting the needs of the hungry, meeting the needs of those the State has failed abysmally.

I have been undertaking research in Tunbridge Wells and so far I have information from 14 Christian organisations which provide food, free of charge, to those in need. All this food is either donated by Christians or purchased from food retailers by churches/organisations. Hundreds of people are helped but much more can, indeed must be done.

Today, I visited Maidstone and was impressed by the work the churches are doing in that town to alleviate hunger. The work of 'Food for Thought' which is part of Maidstone Christian Care is particularly noteworthy as it does receive food from commercial organisations.

It is important to understand that hunger is often the symptom of deeper or other problems: debt, family breakdown, unemployment, alcohol and/or drug addiction, homelessness...the list can be added to.

We must challenge statutory and voluntary organisations to mobilise to overcome food poverty. Will YOU join in the challenge?

Foodbank Organisation in the UK

Two of the major foodbank organisations are:

The Trussell Trust and FareShare

There are important distinctions in the way each operates but it does seem sensible for a foodbank in Kent to link in with one of these two organisations.

Apologies for returning to this......

When Kent County Council announced it was investing significant resources to develop and sustain a Kent-wide credit union I was amazed. Amazed that a Conservative led council was taking this initiative, particularly after my experience with Essex County Council which was less than helpful in advancing the cause of Essex Savers Credit Union.

I was very disappointed by the failure of the voluntary sector (including faith groups) in Kent to support this initiative, as the groups likely to benefit most from a credit union are the very ones voluntary and faith groups help.

My latest endeavour is to promote a foodbank for Kent. One of the leading charities in the UK is FareShare which has a number of projects across the nation. One is in Leicester where it is partnered by the Leicester Diocese of The Church of England, or to be more specific, by the Diocese's Social Responsibility Department.

The Canterbury and Rochester Dioceses used to have a shared social responsibility department - Church in Society - which became an independent charity.

Now there is nothing (at least nothing in the public domain). It would have been sensible to explore the potential for a foodbank with FareShare and CIS as partners along the Leicester model. Who speaks now for social responsibility in the two dioceses?

Foodbank for Kent

Our research continues apace. New support is gained, more information gathered and a clearer picture emerging of the way forward. Far more exciting than the election!

Foodbank for Kent

I came across this definition of food poverty recently in a National Consumer Council document:

Food poverty is the inability to acquire or consume an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so.

Another interesting passage in the NCC document is a description of food access.

The term 'food access' takes into consideration the complexity of factors that affect a person's ability to obtain sufficient, adequate food for good health- including having enough money to buy food, being physically able to walk or drive to shops which can provide this, and understanding how to prepare and use healthy foods.

It is estimated that four million people in the UK cannot afford a healthy diet and one in five parents, and one in ten children, regularly go hungry because they do not have enough money for food.

The links between poverty and deprivation and ill-health and premature death are now widely acknowledged.

A foodbank for Kent will provide a major resource to tackle these issues.

Foodbank for Kent

One of the issues in setting up a foodbank is to determine need. It is easy to find anecdotal evidence but meaningful statistics are much harder to acquire. Two tools are MOSAIC and the food access radar and we shall be looking at how they might be of assistance in our task.

Foodbank for Kent

The proposal for a foodbank in Kent has gained the support of Greg Clark, Conservative candidate for Tunbridge Wells and a former shadow minister.

Foodbank for Kent

Research in Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone has thrown into focus the serious problem of food poverty. The response is uncoordinated and not meeting the need. A small group is working away to find ways of overcoming this problem. Food and shelter are the two basic requirements of life. It is nothing short of a scandal that there are people in Kent going short of food.

I'm all a Twitter

I have signed up to Twitter as Tykeinkent and Facebook as John Hopkinson. Today, I started a Facebook Group: Foodbank for Kent campaign. Not sure if all these links work!!

Foodbank for Kent: Update

Foodbanks seek to ameliorate the problem of food poverty. In Kent there are a number of churches distributing free food, and not just in areas of poor economic performance such as Dover, Folkestone, Thanet and Sheerness.

The problem is across Kent. The hidden poor are struggling to adequately feed themselves whilst there are the trappings of affluence all around them.

A few of us are working to provide a robust and sustainable response to the problem of food poverty. We intend to meet early in May to review our research and decide on the next action points.

Foodbank for Kent

I have started a new blog for this topic. Click here to visit the site. Better still, join the campaign