geofoodie

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Food clubs and their social impact

Many of you will know that I do a lot of research focusing on Rung 2 of the Food Ladders. One of these organisations is The Bread and Butter Thing. I’ve known Mark and Jane since they founded the Food Club in about 2016. In 2019 we did our first member survey. I was a bit tired of the narrative around saving money. My view is you can’t save what you haven’t got in the first place. I wanted to…

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What is a food club?

I recently had an interview with a reporter from The Grocer about the role of food clubs in the UK. A food club is not a food bank. Instead it is a low-cost, community-based food project that makes available food that is often donated by retailers and food producers. The food is within date, but frequenlty short-dated, so not suitable for sale at the usual outlets. These community food clubs are…

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Social Justice in a time of crisis--Society, community and reflections on how we might evaluate those running for election and the recent UK budget.

I read the newspaper this morning, and like yesterday morning, most of what I saw was crisis talk. With good reason. Wars and conflicts are multiple. The increase in frequency and magnitude of weather events (which are scientifically linked to climate change) results in large numbers of deaths and longer-term effects such as loss of property and livelihoods.  Once vibrant communities struggle to…

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Pledges, Missions and Food Security

The government has 5 missions:  Kickstart economic growth, Take back our streets, Break down barriers to opportunity, build an NHS for the future, and Make Britain a green energy superpower.  Food security is imbricated with all these pledges.  Economic growth for all means good jobs, and good jobs need people able to do them.  This means having healthy people and being healthy rests on being…

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*New* Food Ladders Toolkit Launched

On the 10th of September 2024 we launched the Food Ladders Toolkit. The event was held in Lambeth at the Community Shop. Food, based on the food stories of people who use Community Shop, was cooked for us by community members. It was absolutely fantastic. We want to thank all those who helped with the day and those who came and joined us. If you were unable to join us for the launch and would…

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Food Ladders Toolkit - Planning

Things to consider How do you coordinate your network? Going forward, one of the first questions will be how to organise your activity to maintain its momentum and achieve its aims. While all coordination should be partnership working, who takes the lead may differ depending on circumstances within a particular locality. Sustainable Food Places identified three types of local food networks:…

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The Rise of Food Insecurity in England: Using Food Ladders to overcome the barriers

I was recently invited to present at a parliamentary breakfast. In fact, it was to be this morning. But a general election was called so the breakfast was cancelled. I wrote a report to be handed out at the event about the state of Food Security in England and how it has increased at an alarming rate. In 2018, before the pandemic, the rate was about 1 in every 10 adults. In the summer of 2020,…

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The living wage? A view from a discussion.

What are your thoughts? I have some views, but I am curious about what the hive mind thinks. I recently engaged in a thought-provoking discussion with charity trustees focused on supporting struggling individuals. Our conversation centred around the challenges related to wages and their broader impact. One trustee highlighted the charity’s struggle to maintain wages in line with the cost of…

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Ultra Processed Food, Stomach Share, and the Problem of Food Contexts

Ultra processed foods are in the news more and more. A recent meta-study found there are a myriad of health issues linked to diets comprised primarily of such foods. When thinking about the level of processing, foods are typically categorised into 4 groups: unprocessed or minimally processed, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra-processed foods. Processing is not a bad thing…

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Let's talk about Food Deserts.

Lets talk about #FoodDeserts.

I am frequently asked to explain what a food desert is. I thought I would make this short video to provide an understanding of how I approach the issue of food deserts. I have written more about them in this post about a report I was involved in, and this post is an extract from an Encyclopedia chapter that I wrote concerning food justice and foodscapes. A short video about food deserts and how…

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Reparative Horizons for a food secure future: Call for abstracts RGS-IBG annual international conference

Please consider joining us at the RGS-IBG 2024 conference. See our call for abstracts on reparative horizons for food secure futures.

We are requesting expressions of interest to join a paper session at the RGS-IBG sponsored by the Food Geographies Research Group. How do we make reparative horizons visible for communities and households in food crises? The current contexts within which people eat, survive and support each other are structured to reproduce the inequalities that produce vulnerability to food insecurity. While…

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Children are going without lunch, but behind hungry children there are hungry parents

It is not right that in a country as wealthy as ours, children and parents are going without food.

Households where at least one child is in year 3+ and is not registered for free school meals. Households with a child in year 3 or above not registered for FSM (n=734)YesNo, but worriedEither skipping or worriedI would like my child to have FSM   Child goes without lunch at school some days 15.5%42% 57.5%Child eats a smaller lunch at school some days 31.5%30.6% 62.1%Child eats a less healthy…

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FUSE Research Event: Food insecurity: Regional Research, National Impact

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How we think about poverty makes a difference to how we address hunger

This entry focuses on two approaches to understanding poverty and its links to how people may be food secure. The first approach, the economic model, is described, and its implications are considered. The second, the capabilities approach, is similarly explained and elaborated. The entry also argues that the links between poverty and food security are as salient for wealthy countries as for less…

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Food insecurity is not a competition.

I give a lot of talks and interviews about food security. Last week I gave 2; the week before, I gave one; and at the beginning of January, I gave another. I am grateful that people what to hear what I have to say and that it is, hopefully, helping in the fight to get people to listen to the issues that people are facing around food security. Food insecurity exists in wealthy economies where…

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Doing Academic Impact: A metaphor

Research impact is increasingly recognised as a valuable academic output. For years, much of the focus has been on translating hard science research findings into commercial products, but that is not all that research impact can be. It is sometimes difficult for those in the social sciences and humanities to understand, however, what their research impact might be when it is not easily translated…

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Presentation for Gather Movement on Food Security and Asset-Based Approaches

Presentation about #foodsecurity and the use of #ABCD as an approach to building capability on the #FoodLadders

Presentation to Gether Movement In early January, I gave a talk to Gather Movement about food security in the UK and how to embed asset-based approaches into food support for communities. Asset-based approaches (or Asset Based Community Development–ABCD) focus on and develop the resources (or assets) that are already within a community before going out to secure additional resources that might…