Rethinking affordable food:
PHE visit to West Midlands food banks – 8th July 2013
With an apparently exponential rise in the numbers of food banks and estimates of
more than 350,000 people accessing
them1 PHE staff with an interest in
food poverty visited two food banks
established in the West Midlands
recently.
Pam Naylor from the Children, Young
People and Families team and lead on
child obesity, Karen Saunders, Health
and Wellbeing Manager in PHE West
Midlands Centre and Ginder Narle
manager for Learning for Public
Health, West Midlands decided to find
out more about how food banks
operate and their contribution to public health and wellbeing. They visited the West
Bromwich Food Bank and ‘Breaking Bread’ in Wednesbury with Heather Chinner,
the lead for this work for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and Sandwell’s
emergency providers network. Angela Blair, the borough council’s public health lead
organised the visit.
Dave Williams, Karen Saunders and Ginder Narle
Poor diet related ill health costs the NHS in the UK £5.8 billion a year. It contributes
to a third of cases of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers. 2 The
links between a diet high in salt and fat and heart disease and stroke are well known.
The impact of diet, mainly low in fibre, fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds on
cancers of the oesophagus, stomach and colorectum3 is less well acknowledged but
now recognised as substantial.
Food banks operate as an emergency service for those who find themselves with
insufficient resources to buy food. Clients are limited to three visits a year, each of
which can provide food for ten meals or three days. Food is donated by individuals,
by retailers and the larger supermarkets and in some cases by harvest festival
collections. During the weekend of 6th and 7th July Tesco promoted a ‘Help Feed
People in need’ promotion for donated food, with Fareshare from its stores
nationwide. Tesco will add 30% to the food collected.
1
Walking the Breadline, Niall Cooper and Sarah Dumpleton, Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty Report, 2013
National Diet & Nutrition Survey, 2008
3
Food, Nutrition , Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer, World Cancer Research fund, 2007, American
Institute for Cancer Research
2
The West Bromwich food bank, based at the West Bromwich Community Church
started over 5 years ago, it was the only food bank in the Sandwell area until 18
months ago, now there are 6. It has 60-80 clients a week and fed 286 people last
Christmas. Keith Turner is its manager. The Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
has set up a network of food banks across the area to ensure no food is wasted,
avoids any bank running short of food (they share any large quantities donated), and
provides support and information for volunteers. Local council staff also regularly
donate food to the bank.
We also visited ‘Breaking Bread’ run by John Steventon and one of his volunteers,
Dave Williams, which has a street location and also receives donations of clothes
and shoes. Nothing is wasted – an out of date
donation of tinned mackerel provided tasty
meals at a local cat shelter, and a ton of palm oil
was sold on for fuel raising funds for the food
bank! Impressive recycling!
The national Trussell Trust is the major provider
of food banks although neither food bank visited
were currently a member. The Trust has
developed a set ‘list’ of suitable products that
was drawn up with the help of its local PCT.
John Steventon, Heather Chinner and Dave
Whilst food banks do their best in difficult
Williams
circumstances to provide largely dried or tinned
products to avoid waste and ensure shelf life, there is an inevitable limit to the
provision of fresh fruit and vegetables that would normally be part of a healthy diet.
Families on low incomes are more likely to use a greater proportion of their income
on essential services and products such as fuel, food and finance. They are often
unable to access cheaper options e.g. superstores are located in out of town sites
leaving them with fewer options in what are sometimes described as ‘food deserts’.
The staff are almost all volunteers often from the local churches, many of whom
have experience of working with the homeless or in welfare rights. The clients range
from homeless people through to people with more affluent backgrounds who have
suddenly faced changed circumstances. Benefit delays are the most significant
reason for clients to use food banks although these range from people affected by
debt, to emergency situations relating to domestic violence, and some families are in
work but earn too little to cope with unforeseen events. Clients are assessed as
genuine by the staff and misuse of the food banks seems to be unusual. They do not
advertise and only in exceptional circumstances take clients who walk in off the
street.
Vouchers are provided by more mainstream services e.g. Children’s Centres, Family
Nurse Partnership, churches and local voluntary organisations, and are redeemable
at the food bank.
Food banks are seen by their sponsors very much as temporary emergency
provision and not a longer term solution to food poverty. They are a gateway
however, for referral to other forms of help with debt advice, welfare benefits and
whenever possible, to cooking clubs and a contribution to ‘Making Every Contact
Count’.
As with many small voluntary projects volunteers may not have the skills, or more
importantly the time, to take on more strategic work on food poverty to argue for a
fairer system to enable all families to have access to a healthy and secure diet.
John Steventon commented:
‘It seems impossible that at this stage in our social history there are rising numbers
of people in food poverty and urgent need of food’.
Rising food prices have also increased this need with reported rises of 35% over the
last five years. In households which cannot afford an adequate diet for their children,
93% have at least one adult who ‘skimps’ on their own food to try to protect the
childreni4.
The visit highlighted the following key issues:




Food poverty is increasing and becoming more widespread
Food banks are only a temporary solution for people in crisis
Food banks, whilst perhaps keen to do so, are limited in their ability to
promote a balanced healthy diet
But they provide a clear example of local people finding local, voluntary
resources and harnessing contributions from retailers, local businesses and
international companies.
With rising rates of child obesity, increases in food poverty, child poverty, the need
for better skills in preparing and cooking cheap but nutritious food, rising costs and
the ecological footprint of our food system - is it time we had a rethink on food?’
4
Poverty and social Exclusion UK4