Tag Archives: Research

Coronavirus: inspiring community attempts to stem increased hunger need government

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Coronavirus: inspiring community attempts to stem increased hunger need government help

Megan Blake, University of Sheffield

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed just how much we depend on easy access to food. The beginning of the UK’s lockdown saw the closure of restaurants and pubs, and empty supermarket shelves. The number of people who are struggling to access food because of financial difficulties has dramatically swelled. Amid this turmoil, there has been an incredible response from the social, public and commercial sectors to provide food to people in need. But we need government to support their efforts. Continue reading →

Fresh Street highlighted in The Mint Magazine

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Since 2018 I have been working with colleagues at the University of Sheffield on a research project, Fresh Street, that offers £5 weekly vouchers to families that they can use to buy fruits and vegetables from small local shops or via a veg bag delivery scheme.  I talked about this work recently in an article in The Mint Magazine.  They have made the article publically available.  This is what they have to say about the project. Continue reading →

Feeding Affordances and Decent Helpings. (Nearly) Final Report

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I’ve just about finished the final report for the Feeding Affordances  project I did with Doncaster Council last year.  As a result, Doncaster is setting itself up as a sustainable food city  and is already doing fantastic things with its third sector organisations in its communities.  I am constantly awed by what people do to support each other.

I’ve uploaded the (nearly) final report from the project onto my academia.edu account if you are interested in reading it.  I welcome feedback on the content.  I would also really like to know if it gets used and helps to inform action or policy at local levels.  For either of these, or if you are struggling to download a copy, leave a message and I will get back to you.

Here is the synopsis of the report:

There is an emerging context of social support withdrawal as a result of funding withdrawal by central government is creating a context within which individuals, households and communities are having to increasingly seek support from third-sector organisations in the UK. This is happening through:

  • ⇒  The introduction and eventual rollout of Universal Credit are likely to contribute further to these inequalities, but there also may be opportunities for improving diets.
  • ⇒  A squeeze on the abilities of local authorities to support their communities as local authority remits have expanded to include addressing diet-related public health and public health inequalities, which include health inequalities that arise out of food poverty. Local authorities will also become responsible for supporting the way in which individuals and families will have to cope with the transition to Universal Credit. At the same time, as local authority remits are expanding they are facing draconian cuts to their budgets such that there are staff reductions resulting in cuts to the capacity of the LA to deliver programmes.
  • ⇒  There has been a rise in community and third-sector organisations who are concerned with helping to reduce health inequalities by helping to reduce food poverty.Given the importance that resilience is playing in helping local authorities to resolve the gaps that austerity is creating, it is clear that more research is needed that examines the dimensions of resilience (adapting, coping, transforming). Specifically with regard to how:
  • ⇒  Activities within these three areas can contributing to different scales of resilience (individual, household, community, and local authority area);
  • ⇒  How collectively activities within an area contribute to a landscape of resilience enabling support.A more collaborative approach may enable local authorities to better work with these third-sector organisations to best realise the possibilities that partnership could provide. Recommendations for more collaborative working are detailed in this report and are based on community-based research, participant observation, consultation with community organisations and local authorities, and the outcomes of a co-production workshop.

    This research was funded by ESRC IAA award number R/145185

Food Justice: Opportunities to get involved, Opportunities to Learn

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I’ve been quite busy over the course of the last few months trying to make practical some of the issues that underpin many of the motives behind GeoFoodie.  Some of these activities have been quite ambitious while others have brought me into contact with a number of like minded people or have enabled me to learn ever more about the issues that are embedded in a concern for Food Justice. In this post I define what I think of as food justice and highlight some of those activities I’ve been involved in over the past year or so.  Continue reading →