Lockdown
On the evening of Monday 23rd March, I was on a Zoom call when a newsflash updated on my phone stating that Boris Johnson had declared an immediate lockdown. Although the news wasn’t unexpected, what was unknown was how the announcement would affect food bank operations across the UK, and indeed whether it would even be legal for food banks to be able to continue their services.
As I swiftly ended my existing call, watched the statement in full, and then joined a further conversation with my colleagues, I felt sick to my stomach.
Of course, I felt anxious for my family and friends. But I also felt deeply worried for the thousands of people who might have received a referral to receive emergency food from their local food bank on Tuesday or Wednesday, and who were now unsure of what might happen next.
As we sought to receive clarification on the key worker status (or otherwise) of volunteers and staff at food banks, I found myself asking whether the depth of commitment to community – a value which lies at the very heart of our food bank network - would be able to provide the foundation we needed at this moment.
The Trussell Trust Network and Community
There are more than 1,200 food bank centres in the Trussell Trust network; around two thirds of the food banks in the UK. Each of these locations represents a serious commitment to supporting people in the local community who are experiencing a crisis.
Community is a core value for us (alongside compassion, dignity and justice) because our network has been forged by people deciding to stand alongside others in their locality, offering hospitality and kindness at a moment of immediate need, and working together to tackle the underlying drivers of food bank use. Most food banks will deliver their services in parallel with other forms of community support (either formally or informally), and across the UK, Trussell Trust food banks are collaborating with around 25,000 active referral partners. A significant majority of our food banks are deeply connected with local church communities, and many volunteers and staff would also hold a theological conviction that people are intrinsically relational.
In short, we value community because we recognise the significance of relationships and creating the conditions in which we can do these well.
Covid-19 and the Challenge of Maintaining Community
By Tuesday 24th March, it was self-evident (and why should I ever have doubted?!) that those involved in food bank projects (Trussell Trust and otherwise) around the UK had redoubled their commitment to local community. Over the subsequent days and weeks, food banks continued to offer emergency support to people who couldn’t afford food, persevering in a highly volatile context fraught with technical and logistical challenges.
But, like many churches and voluntary services have experienced, Covid-19 has stretched us to our limits in terms of maintaining our commitment to community. Experiences would, of course, vary from place to place, but repeated themes I hear are:
Who is able to be the point of contact to identify when somebody is in crisis when statutory and voluntary referrers are now often physically inaccessible?
How can we appropriately balance our commitments to both a humanising person-to-person relationship and also ensuring everyone’s safety, especially people who are vulnerable (people referred to a food bank, and those working at the food bank)
How can we support people, in a trusting, relational way, to help them resolve the underlying injustices which have led them to require a food bank when our contact is remote or limited?
How can we remain connected to our community of volunteers when social-distancing and shielding requirements mean that people will be unable to be physically present with us?
Covid-Shaped Community Responses
Because we are people inspired by this commitment to community, there have been significant efforts within and beyond the Trussell Trust network of food banks to respond to these challenges.
Over the past months, we have seen food banks offer phone calls, texts and (if possible) video calls to people in receipt of emergency food parcels, providing a vital listening ear to people who often have nowhere else to turn. Many food banks are including an additional ‘tea break’ kit in parcels alongside signposting to key services to encourage people to chat through any support that might be helpful for them.
Some food banks who work on a more ongoing basis with people who use their services have invested in tablets with data connectivity to facilitate group hangouts, and we have set up partnership projects on a national basis (Citizens Advice in England and Wales, Advice NI in Northern Ireland etc.) to provide a free telephone advice service for people in crisis who haven’t been able to make contact with a traditional referral partner.
Some other aspects of food bank activity which have had to innovate feel temporary. In the midst of lockdown, we ran a partnership project with British Gas which saw over 1,700 employee volunteers provide nearly 60,000 hours of support to help deliver donated food to food banks, and from food banks to people who had received a referral. Whilst absolutely essential to our ability to support people in crisis between April and June 2020, continuing this kind of delivery and logistics service feels dissonant with both our long-term goal of ending the need for food banks, and our commitment to relationality through community.
The Importance of Community
Our conviction is that the experiences of the past months have underscored the centrality of community to the work of food banks, and, indeed, to the wider voluntary sector. And as we anticipate the impending challenge of the economic outlook, rising unemployment, increasing concerns around mental health and wellbeing, we will need to draw on the rich resource of community to enact and advocate for long-term change.
Over the coming months, we will be launching a strategic plan for ending the need for food banks, rooted in change in local communities, amongst the general public and in the policy arena. This kind of change is possible only when local communities come together, standing in solidarity alongside one another and push for changes in practice and policy that can help the whole community thrive. As we learn more about the value of community through COVID-19, so we must prepare to further orientate this concern towards a truly flourishing society where nobody goes hungry because nobody will allow it.
Matthew van Duyvenbode is Chief Strategy Officer at The Trussell Trust