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March 21, 2018
Food with dignity
The full extent of food poverty in Scotland may be hard to determine but we know that it is widespread and growing year on year. Some have been critical that the proliferation of food banks and other community food providers has become the new normal and that this is deflecting attention away from the root causes. No one however doubts the crucial contribution that these services make. A timely and thoughtful new resource just published by Nourish Scotland and others proposes that dignity should be an intrinsic part of this provision and suggests ways to achieve it.
This practical resource has been developed by Nourish Scotland and the Poverty Truth Commission with and for community food providers, including those providing emergency food aid. It includes tools and exercises to help projects think about what dignity looks like in practice and how this can be achieved, and complements the ‘Dignity in Practice’ report. We co-produced this resource as part of the Dignity Project to support staff, volunteers and those taking part in community food initiatives to:
· consider how the design and delivery of their project makes people experiencing food insecurity feel;
· reflect on what more could be done to promote and restore dignity in practice. We will be adding more resources as we continue to work with people with lived experience, community food providers and others in the time ahead. We hope you will find them useful, do contact us with any suggestions and feedback – we would love to hear from you.
The full report – Dignity in Practice- produced by Nourish Scotland and Poverty Truth Commission is available for download here