Voluntary organisation and mutual-aid organisations are invited undersign the demands using this form.
NFS
The National Food Service is a partnership of third sector projects that tackle food insecurity across the country with local contacts in every city or region. At its heart we share the desire to ensure that everyone has their basic needs met. Food is a right.
We have 3 essential demands that will enable our communities to support our society during this pandemic. We want the government and local authorities to act on these demands to remove blockers that exist in the voluntary sector so that we can be most effective.
Our demands.
1. Support for all organisations tackling food insecurity during Covid - 19 - including mutual aid networks.
2. Grant emergency resources and reduce barriers to immediate food access.
3, Protect Community Spaces and increase access to facilities and kitchens for public good.
1. Support for all organisations tackling food insecurity during the Covid - 19 pandemic - including mutual aid networks
Thousands risk losing jobs, face bankruptcy and suffering financial insecurity with a 90% chance of recession. Over the coming months of global economic instability the market will struggle to effectively distribute goods and services. People with difficult financial situations, those without reserves and those rendered incapacitated will be the first who may struggle to eat. Children who rely on free school meals may become malnourished.
Both public services and markets have hit a wall. The sheer volume of support required does not match this service supply. Community food and social eating initiatives are anchor organisations, decentralised, responsive, able to rapidly arrange service delivery to those in need. They contribute to well-being, food socialisation, food access, availability, affordability and food literacy. They are food hygiene certified and skilled in outreach and engagement. They are used to large-scale cooking and surplus-use and well-connected with multiple and diverse community organisations. They are thus well placed to respond to this crisis.
However, most are at capacity, financially precarious and volunteer-dependent. Support must therefore be offered if this capacity is to be expanded to a more general public including those at risk of Covid19.
Peer to peer communities have grown rapidly at a pace (500 mutual aid groups alone in three days). Strategies for how the public services and community organisations will fit together is needed. We need to share resources, offer support to one another, and open up financial aid for the development of further resources and provision.
New models need to be tested to overcome market restrictions to the free distribution and delivery of food. Resources need to be given to community groups to ensure they can effectively support members of society that need to eat in the coming weeks. Ensuring that this fits together with the voluntary and state sectors to reduce the potential of exploitation of the most vulnerable in these tough times.
We suggest that the lead be taken by these peer to peer groups rather than taken on as a council run endeavor. This is because these organisations already have the links necessary to quickly get this support to the people who need it.
2. Grant emergency resources and reduce all barriers to immediate food access.
Our public services and the markets that provide fundamental necessities will be overstretched very shortly, with a deficit of caring staff, an inability for supermarkets to deliver to customers in self-isolation and a turbulent financial situation for many families.
An underfunded and under resourced voluntary sector needs to organise quickly to take a share of the load. Emergency policies must maximise capacity in all areas in the country, stimulating emergency food distribution and essential aid. Groups must be funded immediately to effectively build momentum and organise over the coming weeks as the pandemic unfolds.
These groups need to buy, source and distribute food as a matter of urgency. They need to rent essential equipment such as vans and transportation and pay co-ordinators to manage complex city wide projects. We propose the creation of large emergency partnership block grants to be administered by Community or Local Voluntary Services and distributed to groups tackling food in-security in the city. These grants need to be made available by the end of next week, that’s 27/3/20.
3, Protect Community Spaces and increase access to facilities and infrastructure for public good.
Communities need access to all available facilities. Unused spaces need to be made available to community organisations who are able to use them for the distribution of food and resources. This includes integrating with existing infrastructure like the postal service delivery infrastructure where possible but also making full use of publicly owned venues, such as unused kitchens. These need to be offered to organisations with the capacity to use them for public benefit at cost or fractional cost that is sustainable for long protracted periods of time.
Community spaces, as with all small businesses, are at risk of permanent closure. They need freezes on rent and bills to protect them during this pandemic.
This is not just a physical health pandemic, it is also a mental health pandemic as we isolate ourselves from our communities. Community food projects distribute nutritional and sociable meals, whilst being a space for mutual well-being. When the period of isolation is over we will need community spaces more than ever. Returning our society to normal will require spaces to come together and care for one another. It is vital that these places are available for communities to come back together.
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