Food Poverty
What is Food Poverty?
‘The inability to afford, or to have access to, food to make up a healthy diet.’ The Department of Health
Who is The Peterborough Food Poverty Forum?
Peterborough’s Food Poverty Forum is facilitated by PCVS’ Recovery Project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
It is a meeting point for organisations who offer food aid. Members range from food banks, housing associations, soup kitchens, community pantries, cafés and meal providers as well as officers of charities, the local authority, social prescribers and we also have a school!
Many of our members additional wrap around care such as debt advice and income maximisation, aimed at tackling the root causes of food poverty.
Why is this important?
There has been a massive increase in demand for food provision since the cost-of-living crisis started hitting Peterborough hard from autumn 2022. This type of food provision should be for emergencies only, and not become the first port of call for organisations to direct families to when they are facing a financial crisis.
What are the aims of Peterborough Food Poverty Forum?
The Food Poverty Forum want to work with the wider food system to make hunger a thing of the past. Forum members strive to treat everyone coming through their doors with dignity. They recognise that being reliant on charity to provide food for your family can carry stigma and a loss of dignity so want to see an end for the need to offer food aid support in our city.
How are they working towards this goal?
Our member organisations already reduce food waste by collecting, preparing and distributing food which would often go into landfill previously. We are currently working on mapping food poverty relief projects in the city to make it easier for organisations to refer people to for additional help.
We will be running an awareness campaign of the wide range of services on offer such as food banks, soup kitchens, community pantries as well as wider provision through local hubs.
Peterborough Food Partnership
Food poverty must stop!
For this to to happen people need the resources in food, fuel and knowledge to create nutritious rich meals daily. This is difficult for a number of reasons for example people are put off home cooking due to rising fuel costs. Our ambitions are to address such issues with the wider Peterborough Food Partnership, which is a network of Food distribution and suppliers united to develop an understanding of wider long term food poverty issues in the city. This is with a view to working collaboratively to reduce and prevent food poverty and where practicable, to share surplus food among members of the network to minimise wastage. They aim to understand individual organisational needs, wants and gaps to ensure that the Peterborough community is helped in an equal and fair way.
Members include Peterborough Foodbank, Food for Nought,Paston Farm Community Fridge, Milfield Community Fridge, Westraven Community Cafe, Peterborough Soup Kitchen, Little Miracles, Foodcycle, Family Action and Peterborough Homeless Helpers.
Have you checked out our Don't Go Hungry leaflet?
The Cost of Living Increases have left many people struggling. There is no reason to feel alone with finance or food worries. The Don’t Go Hungry leaflet aims to guide you towards free, professional help available, including financial support and access to emergency food supplies. We plan to update this resource but in the meantime, please click here
How can you help?
Peterborough is an incredibly generous city which helps those who need it most. However, due to the current economic climate, all member organisations need more donations of food, and money to buy it. If you would like to help in some way, please email communities@pcvs.co.uk
They also need more volunteers to help with food preparation, service, and delivery. Without these amazing people many more would go hungry in modern Britain. If you would like to volunteer then please fill out a form on the PCVS Volunteering Centre page
