In recent years, UK residents have faced the negative effects of a sharp increase in food prices. Food price inflation hit close to a 45-year high in 2023, which has since left people feeling worried about affording basic necessities.
The Covid-19 pandemic, while a crisis, amplified the need for collaborative efforts among organisations. It certainly made the food poverty landscape worse, but it has helped to lay strong foundations for ongoing partnerships to reduce the severity of the issues.
Research commissioned by Sheffield University explained that in January 2021, 7.1% of adults in Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES) experienced hunger, 11.2% struggled to access food, and 15.6% worried about insufficient food. The research states hunger is defined as having skipped food for a whole day or more or indicating hunger but not eating due to not being able to afford or get access to food. Struggle is defined as looking for help to access food, skipping or shrinking a meal or giving a reason to not having enough food. In response, key organisations have stepped in to create a collaborative strategy to tackle the issues.
Since 2020, Milly Carmichael has been coordinating and championing the work to address food insecurity by working closely with St John’s Foundation and the BaNES Fair Food Alliance as a Health Improvement Officer in the Public Health team, focusing on food insecurity. Due to the current situation, Milly’s role, funded by St John’s, aims to maintain the momentum of the work and continue efforts to increase community resilience by reducing the need for crisis-level support through greater preventative measures.
The BaNES Fair Food Alliance, chaired by Public Health Consultant Amy McCullough, serves as the steering group for addressing food insecurity in the region. It includes key stakeholders such as councillors, affordable food providers, key local organisations, and teams involved in welfare, housing, education and financial wellbeing. The group meets quarterly to reflect on progress and guide the direction of the work.
The Alliance is structured to ensure there is a coordinated effort through three operational groups. The Affordable Food Network, brings together community provision around affordable, accessible food. This includes food banks, food clubs, community kitchens, cafés and fridges. The Income Maximisation Group brings together local organisations concerned with welfare support, benefits, employability, and financial wellbeing. The purpose is to improve mutual understanding and collaborative work across that sector to ensure the routes to financial support are clear. The third area of work is ‘Hear My Voice’ which refers to our intention to always include local people affected by food insecurity in the work of the Alliance. It is based in a collaboration with researchers from the University of Bath and builds on their qualitative research findings which inform our direction and priorities.
To gain insight into the experience of BaNES residents, the Council send a Voicebox Survey to residents annually. The results show that between 2020 and now, moderate to severe food insecurity, which means often or sometimes not having enough to eat, has risen from 2% to 5%. Mild food insecurity, meaning the individual has enough food but not always what they want, has sharply increased from 11% to 26%. In addition to this concerning reality, one in six people say they are worried about being able to afford food, triggering daily stress and pressure that can significantly impact people’s wellbeing.
To better understand the living experience of food insecurity for people in BaNES, there is a strong partnership with University of Bath researchers. Research into the experience of living with food insecurity, including specific studies with older adults, has provided valuable data to inform our work. This partnership supports the work of the Alliance by improving local insight, building the integrity of the evidence base, and creating an engaging prompt for improving support provision across our communities.
The BaNES Fair Food Alliance is also part of the national Feeding Britain network, which now has over 100 similar alliance members across the country. They offer both practical support and guidance to help those alliances set up and flourish, and lobby at the national government level for policy and legislative change which is beyond the remit of local authorities to achieve alone. They also share good practices from around the network. This has included the innovative BaNES Crop Drop project which distributes surplus allotment produce to affordable food projects across BaNES.
The long-term goal of the BaNES Fair Food Alliance is to reduce the need for crisis intervention by embedding preventative approaches. This involves community and network-building that bolsters community confidence and resilience. The concept of ‘food ladders’ such as Sustainable Food Places, is integral to this approach; recognising that different experiences of food insecurity need different yet integrated models of support in every community.
Household food insecurity will be with us as long as the wider drivers of inequality, inflation, and food system pressures persist. Guided by BaNES residents’ experience, the Fair Food Alliance will continue to shape the BaNES action plan to meet local needs and contribute to regional and national work to eradicate the need for crisis support.
Find out more about BaNES Fair Food Alliance here.
