OUR VISION

Our collective vision for the future is very clear: We want to see a Food Bank Free Britain.

To achieve this, national and local governments must address the structural inequalities that drive poverty, including the adoption of a sustainable cash-first approach to supporting people in immediate crisis. This means tackling financial hardship and household food insecurity by providing direct financial assistance (in the form of cash or vouchers), rather than in-kind donations like food parcels. 

Within the context of the emergency food aid sector and broader support services aimed at people experiencing financial hardship, cash first approaches can provide dignity, choice and immediate relief, by allowing people to purchase essentials, pay bills, or cover, for example, school uniform and shoes. Locally, this direct assistance should be provided alongside the development of thriving, coordinated networks of community projects that build resilience locally. These networks might include specialist advice services, community hubs and co-located services, social spaces and food projects that build community and bring people together in positive settings to connect around food. This requires strategic planning and support for local food partnerships.

We must begin to differentiate between emergency food aid, which needs to end, and the morally and emotionally resilient community support organisations that will form part of the new sustainable food landscape.

What this looks like will differ from place to place. Each town, city, and community is different, and so the approach needs to be bespoke, community-led and place-based. But we can all work towards the same shared destination: an end to mass reliance on emergency food aid.

In conversation with practitioners from across the UK, we have co-produced a call to action, along with a charter of rights for volunteers and staff. The charter, along with our Dignity Toolkit, should be used as we transition towards a Food Bank Free Britain.