I recently asked local Conservative Councillor Graham Cox via twitter if he had any suggestions to make as to how the current intense pressure on foodbanks could be reduced. This follows an exponential increase in demand for these services across the country including in Sussex. I was not expecting Graham to have any particular expertise in this area, but he had been taunting the local Labour Party to answer questions about their national party policy and I felt it was a good moment to see how he would respond to a similar challenge. I am sorry to say that I think Graham needs to do a bit more research if he is going to achieve credibility in this vital area.

I should declare an interest in that I founded a local food charity which is known as Brighton & Hove FareShare about 15 years ago and whilst it is not a foodbank, it does supply food to foodbanks in the city as well as many other charities across Sussex. However I don’t consider myself to be any form of expert on the subject.

The exchange included the following two tweets:

From me: @CoxGraham still silent on what this Govt is going to do to cap the drivers behind the exponential increase in foodbanks?

From Graham: @IanChisnall no. Here is broadly my view but better stated by Laura Sandys http://t.co/ueOyHquI8Z

If you follow the link you will arrive on the website for the Spectator Magazine and an article on foodbanks entitled “We need a recipe to solve food poverty” by Laura Sandys who is the Conservative MP for South Thanet. Sadly although Graham feels Laura can state his views better than he can, these views are mostly half cooked. My interpretation of Ms Sandys article is that she believes that people are driven to foodbanks by their misunderstanding that producing fresh food at home (healthy food in Ms Sandys article) is beyond them and they are instead spending their limited funds on ready meals and fast food. This leaves them with a shortfall in the weekly finances and they are then turning to foodbanks to meet the shortfall. The article states “Too many families believe the age-old myth that healthy food is more expensive than high-calorie, high-carb food. A public information campaign to promote de-bunk this myth would make a real difference.” Whatever the value of information campaigns, the reason why people turn to foodbanks (or rather are referred to food banks) is because their income is so low they cannot feed their families despite a range of other helps provided by these referring agencies. I also question if there is such a myth in existence in the way suggested by Laura’s hyperbole.

There are several places where I agree with Ms Sandys. She expresses that foodbanks “are a symptom not a long-term solution to food poverty.” which is of course a statement of the bleeding obvious, partly because foodbanks generally operate a policy of only offering food for three days as emergency stop gap (although many will allow clients to repeat this stop gap on more than one occasion). Most clients are referred to the foodbank by a statutory agency or a charity where the issue of long term support should be dealt with. The other reason though is that despite the 10 fold increase in foodbank demand over the last year or two, if they were providing the weekly food  demands of even a small proportion of their clients, these charities would need to be the size of major supermarkets. If I thought that the foodbanks were a long term solution I would not be asking Graham how to reduce demand.

Ms Sandys also points to the lack of skill in producing simple meals for many families “Government will need to recognise the invaluable importance of children learning from the earliest age how to prepare food and cook balanced tasty meals on a budget. ………….. Food must be put firmly back on the curriculum in our primary schools. Being able to feed yourself on a budget is an essential life skill and arguably as important as numeracy, literacy or science.” My understanding is that food teaching is not a major component in Michael Goves National Curriculum for Secondary teaching let alone at Primary ages where little equipment is available to provide this education. This is not entirely Michael Goves fault as the teaching kitchens in many of our Secondary Schools were ripped out by previous Conservative Governments as cooking was deemed to be an uneccesary distraction from more important academic work. That happened after Graham, Laura and I had passed through our secondary education. Like Ms Sandys I believe that education is a key component in reducing food banks in the long term. Indeed many of the charities which work with the families dependent on foodbanks also provide education in assembling basic meals. This is partly because food banks supply components to such meals. They do not supply ready meals!

My advice to Ms Sandys and Graham Cox is that they arrange to visit their local foodbank as soon as possible and thereafter they arrange to volunteer to help on a regular basis so they can better understand for themselves how people do arrive there and what might make a difference to those people. Resolving these issues won’t be harmed by making adjustments to primary school curricula and public information campaigns. Indeed such approaches will also assist in reducing childhood obesity, a real consequence of the removal of those kitchens and food science from curricula. However if MP Sandys and Cllr Cox want to make a difference in the number and size of our foodbanks they will find that helping people find well paid work and ensuring incomes cover the costs of running a home including the food bills will make a great deal more difference. Then perhaps Graham can go back to taunting his local Labour Party and Ms Sandys back to writing more articles for magazines.