On Thursday 16 February, students at SCM Leeds organised a ‘Big Conversation’, getting students and locals talking about food poverty, and discussing ideas to tackle hunger and food waste in the city. The event was part of the End Hunger UK campaign, an initiative involving SCM and partners including Church Action on Poverty, Oxfam and the Trussell Trust to combat UK food poverty.
Emma Temple, student outreach worker at Leeds University Chaplaincy, reports from the event:
“The Big Conversation we held in Leeds was a fantastic and inspiring day. We were based in All Hallows, an SCM link church, talking to people in their Junk Food Café. It was a perfect location for the event, an inner-city church with a community café already tackling hunger by reusing food that would otherwise have been thrown out by supermarkets and restaurants. Thursdays at the café are run by the local Syrian community, so there was a diverse mix of people there eating food inspired from all around the world, and feeding local people affordably.
We had some great conversations about hunger in the UK, mostly around food waste because of the project going on around us. But we also talked about a whole range of other issues, including climate change, capitalism, benefits cuts, zero hour contracts, and food prices. There were some great suggestions such as free school meals during school holidays, removing VAT on food, legislating to stop supermarkets wasting food, and introducing a real living wage. People were very keen to get involved in the discussion, and most people we spoke to had lots of thoughts on the subject, recognising that this was a real issue in our country.
We are now going to start planning for how we can take our ideas to our local MP Hilary Benn, and start a conversation with him about tackling food waste. We are hoping to invite him to our café so that he can see the amazing work that goes on there, and can discuss how the government can do more to tackle the huge problem that is food poverty in the UK.”