What is Nourishment?
Over lockdown, food politics rose to national debate. Thanks to the efforts of Marcus Rashford and a network of charities, grassroots activists and volunteers, the government’s harsh decision to leave people hungry has been put into question. Ian Byrne’s Right to Food campaign is gaining traction, with local councils across the country becoming #RighttoFood cities. But while the basic need for food is being acknowledged by some as a universal human right, the social dimension of food continues to be overlooked. The lasting impacts of food poverty have profound effects on people’s mental and physical health. The act of sitting around a table with those closest to you, the ongoing rhythm of eating with others, the worry of there not being enough food, or it not being satisfying or enjoyable create lasting trauma. The food as fuel model practised by food banks continues to engender a sense of alienation and powerlessness to those stuck in poverty. This approach is practiced across the government’s strategy for feeding the UK population, as evidenced in Chartwell’s meagre food parcels of half-cut tomatoes and tuna in coin bags. The landscape of austerity Britain has seen a stark rise in food poverty, with the Trussell Trust reporting a rise in food parcels between 2008 and 2018 from 26,000 given out per year to 1.33 million (Kartik, 2019). Hunger rose during the pandemic, with some reporting up to 10 million people being food insecure in 20201. But despite the growing statistics, shame continues to cripple those stuck in poverty, who internalise the harshest effects of austerity Britain.
The shame and stigma in accessing food aid have been well documented by academics, oftentimes deterring those in need from approaching available services (Garthwaite, 2016; Purdam et al., 2015; Ronson and Caraher, 2015). Loneliness is strongly correlated with food poverty, with a third of those accessing food aid reporting to be socially isolated (Goudie and McIntyre, 2021). Sociologist Zygmut Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity outlines the effects of the globalised economy, where the self increasingly moulds themselves according to a series of consumer choices. The moral economies built through community are fractured in the lonely individual always on the move. Bauman argues that in the libertarian form of freedom, risk is offloaded onto the individual, who is stuck in a constant state of precarity. The industrial food chain that leaves millions hungry and creates vast amounts of food waste, also disempowers communities from taking action for their collective wellbeing. From mothers working in McDonalds on minimum wage, to asylum-seekers desperate to contribute to society, food banks are built on shame, stigma and isolation. The charitable model which upholds the volunteer/user divide continues to disempower those stuck in poverty. Benefit cuts paired with ever-more complicated bureaucratic assessments breed a culture of mistrust in which people are not deemed capable of managing their own lives.
Bottom-up approaches to food provision, built in the spirit of mutuality, invite communities to participate in their collective wellbeing. Through social eating, food takes on its full meaning as the organ for physical and social nourishment. Cooking has been seen to be a powerful lifestyle motivator (Pettinger et al, 2018; Lambert and Wiebel, 1990).
Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar has argued that the ancient act of eating together can have profound effects on one’s physical, mental health and even one’s sense of purpose in life (2017). Cooking together and taking the time to sit and have a meal with others can be a way to learn new skills, share recipes, gain confidence and discuss one’s difficulties in communion with others. The informal setting of co-creation becomes the first step in taking action for personal and collective wellbeing.
If the current food system is harmful to people and the planet, those who are most harmed need the tools to self determine their own food system. A ground-up approach in the spirit of co-creation has the potential to create food ecosystems according to the needs of those who eat and grow. Food shared is food enjoyed. The National Food Service is a network of social eating spaces across the country that tackle the interconnected issues of social isolation and food insecurity. Access and participation in food culture are key in generating creative economies of belonging and mutual trust. When a third of food produced for human consumption globally is wasted, cooking for many can be a way to save on labour time and food waste. The act of finding ways to use up surplus food by pickling, bottling and freezing works to recenter lost knowledge, connecting us to each other and seasonal timescales. The incredible efforts seen across the UK to feed those in need have connected networks of local growers, supermarket gleaners and groups feeding people on the front line. This is community action that is taking the means of production into their own hands. Most importantly, these networks are built through cross-generational solidarity, where trust and energy are the currency, creating new moral economies based on need and collective sustenance. If, as Guattari argued, the environmental crisis is not only a physical one, but also an existential reality, then we need to find new ways to live with each other, new economies that thrive in the joy of co-creation (1989). National Food Service London delivered over 24,000 food parcels between April 2020 and 2021. Working alongside a host of other partners (including the Castle Climbing Centre Garden, Edible London, Hackney Council, GMG Gurdwara, City Harvest, Elizabeth House, Carib Eats) it has become an open-source network for community knowledge, skill sharing and neighbourly support. Anyone can get involved in the service, at whatever scale, by sharing their time, skills, art and food. By becoming more conscious of our food interactions, our food’s journey and the people feeding us, we begin to breathe care back into those connections that have been severed by the consumer economy. Taking the time to think, learn, smell, cook and taste the food we eat, nature comes flooding into our world, with all its stories.
I spent this summer interviewing some folk that have been part of National Food Service London, about their thoughts on loneliness and how it is expressed through food. What shone through across the board was a desire to participate in the caring economy that food enables, perhaps what has kept the planet going from the very beginning of life on earth.
![]()
Bibliography:
Bauman, Z., (2000), Liquid Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Z., (2003), Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Dunbar, R. I. M., (2017), ‘Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating’, Adaptive human behavior and physiology, 3(3), 198–211.
Garthwaite, K., (2016), ‘Stigma, shame and 'people like us': an ethnographic study of foodbank use in the UK’, The journal of poverty and social justice: research, policy, practice, 24(3), 277–289.
Goudie, S. and McIntyre, Z., (2021), A Crisis within a Crisis: The Impact of Covid-19 on Household Food Security, The Food Foundation.
Kartik, R., (2019), Nothing Left in the Cupboards: Austerity, Welfare Cuts and the Right to Food in the UK, Human Rights Watch.
Lambert, E.Y. and Wiebel, W.W., (1990), The Collection and Interpretation of Data from Hidden Populations, Washington, DC: United States National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Pettinger, C. et al., (2018), ‘Employing participatory methods to engage an under-researched group: Opportunities and challenges’, Methodological innovations, 11(1), p. 205979911876982.
Purdam, K., Garratt, E.A. & Esmail, A., (2016), ‘Hungry? Food Insecurity, Social Stigma and Embarrassment in the UK’, Sociology (Oxford), 50(6), 1072-1088.
Ronson, D. And Caraher, M., (2016) ‘Big Society or Shunting Yards? Successful Failures’, in Caraher, M., Coveney, J. (eds) Food Poverty and Insecurity: International Food Inequalities, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 79-88.
Whitwell, J., (2009), ‘Residential Treatment: A Total Therapy’, John Whitwell, www.johnwhitwell.co.uk/child-care-general-archive/residential-treatment-a-total-therapy/ , Accessed 20 Aug. 2021.
