Call for standards for food aid

In a blogpost Robbie Davison, director of Can Cook in Liverpool, argues that the current food aid system does not truly benefit society. Can Cook is a food organisation which teaches cooking skills to people in South Liverpool.

Davison argues that food aid has existed for the past ten years and more and is therefore no longer a short term solution. It needs to transform and concentrate on feeding people nutritious food:

"So far, food standards as they exist, are ignored by the food bank structure and the public sector appear to sanction this, in order to facilitate a poor-food service that is at least ‘doing something’ to feed hungry people. The poorest people therefore, have no choice other than to eat the poorest food the modern food industry can serve up. "

In order for there to be an improvement Davison argues that the food-aid movement needs to start to self-regulate and to want to feed people well. He outlines the following standards for food aid:

• Food-aid should cater for cultural differences and dietary requirements
• Food-aid should remove the use of tinned meats
• Food-aid should remove the use of any end-of-date products
• Food-aid should supply fresh fruit and vegetables
• Food-aid parcels should always be able to provide nutritious family meals, and to help facilitate this
• Refrigeration should be available at all food-aid outlet

Sustain campaigns on Food Poverty. Over 8 million people in the UK struggle to get enough to eat. We work with communities, third-sector organisations, local authorities and government, on ways to alleviate food poverty beyond the food bank and to tackle the root causes of poverty.