The UK's first social supermarket
December 9, 2013 5:34 AM Subscribe
The UK has opened its first social supermarket as a means of combatting food poverty.*
Not to be confused with The People's Supermarket, a central London co-operative that just managed to avoid closure in 2012, the Community Shop in Barnsley is run by the UK's largest commercial re-distributor of surplus food and products. It will sell cheap items to local customers on benefits, is backed by big retailers and will sell surplus stock and items with damaged packaging or incorrect labelling.
Social supermarkets are a small, but growing trend and proposed as another solution to food poverty as austerity measures bite. There are examples in Italy and are well established in Austria (where there are now around 70 PDF link), Spain (where unions have also staged food expropriations) and Greece. Furthermore in August, the Greek government brought in a controversial law allowing supermarkets to sell expired food to the poor.
An October 2013 report from the Red Cross (pdf) noted startling increases in European poverty and warns of a humanitarian crisis: the amount of people depending on Red Cross food distributions in 22 of the countries it surveyed increased by 75 per cent between 2009 and 2012. European stats agency Eurostat estimates that a quarter of all Europeans face poverty or social exclusion.
*And habit forming food banks.
Not to be confused with The People's Supermarket, a central London co-operative that just managed to avoid closure in 2012, the Community Shop in Barnsley is run by the UK's largest commercial re-distributor of surplus food and products. It will sell cheap items to local customers on benefits, is backed by big retailers and will sell surplus stock and items with damaged packaging or incorrect labelling.
Social supermarkets are a small, but growing trend and proposed as another solution to food poverty as austerity measures bite. There are examples in Italy and are well established in Austria (where there are now around 70 PDF link), Spain (where unions have also staged food expropriations) and Greece. Furthermore in August, the Greek government brought in a controversial law allowing supermarkets to sell expired food to the poor.
An October 2013 report from the Red Cross (pdf) noted startling increases in European poverty and warns of a humanitarian crisis: the amount of people depending on Red Cross food distributions in 22 of the countries it surveyed increased by 75 per cent between 2009 and 2012. European stats agency Eurostat estimates that a quarter of all Europeans face poverty or social exclusion.
*And habit forming food banks.
I hate this almost as much as I hate foodbanks.
This isn't to downplay the good work that the Community Shop is doing, or the Trussell Trust, or the Red Cross.
But the shame we should feel, as a nation and as individuals, that there are people who are hungry and rely on charity seems absent. Foodbanks are wrong, the community shop is wrong. We have enough money that adequate benefits should be available to everyone.
I much prefer Jack Monroe's petition (which everyone in the UK should sign).
posted by Gilgongo at 9:05 AM on December 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
This isn't to downplay the good work that the Community Shop is doing, or the Trussell Trust, or the Red Cross.
But the shame we should feel, as a nation and as individuals, that there are people who are hungry and rely on charity seems absent. Foodbanks are wrong, the community shop is wrong. We have enough money that adequate benefits should be available to everyone.
I much prefer Jack Monroe's petition (which everyone in the UK should sign).
posted by Gilgongo at 9:05 AM on December 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
But the shame we should feel, as a nation and as individuals, that there are people who are hungry and rely on charity seems absent. Foodbanks are wrong, the community shop is wrong. We have enough money that adequate benefits should be available to everyone.
Right? It's like, here's your cheap food, and you'll make up the cost in the shame of being seen shopping at the poor peoples' grocery store with all the discarded dregs of regular peoples' supermarkets. I mean, yes, as a stopgap, it helps, but seriously it should be a stopgap and not the solution.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:19 AM on December 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Right? It's like, here's your cheap food, and you'll make up the cost in the shame of being seen shopping at the poor peoples' grocery store with all the discarded dregs of regular peoples' supermarkets. I mean, yes, as a stopgap, it helps, but seriously it should be a stopgap and not the solution.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:19 AM on December 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
A family on a healthy diet can expect to pay $2,000 more a year for food than one having less nutritious meals, say researchers who recommend that the cost gap be closed.
posted by jeather at 9:41 AM on December 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by jeather at 9:41 AM on December 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
*And habit forming food banks.
I suppose it's been long enough since the last wave of massive civil unrest and aristocrat-murder that our ruling class has forgotten.
posted by sonic meat machine at 9:48 AM on December 9, 2013
I suppose it's been long enough since the last wave of massive civil unrest and aristocrat-murder that our ruling class has forgotten.
posted by sonic meat machine at 9:48 AM on December 9, 2013
In the US, in South Dallas, the area has been referred to as a "food desert" from Michael Sorrell, the president of Paul Quinn College. This means that there is no reasonably accessible source of healthy food and what food is available is from convenience stores or fast food restaurants. Sorrell took over the helm of as college president when PQC about to lose its accreditation. He applied a number of interesting changes - one was to shut down the football program and turn the fields into farmland to supply better food for the college and the community.
Here's a TED talk from him telling the story and the solutions. I don't know that I'm thrilled that its been funded in part by Pepsi, but at least it's funded.
Sorrell and I were in the same graduating class in college. I knew his face, but didn't really know him as a student. When I spoke with him recently, it was so fascinating to see someone who is such a adept leader.
posted by plinth at 10:30 AM on December 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Here's a TED talk from him telling the story and the solutions. I don't know that I'm thrilled that its been funded in part by Pepsi, but at least it's funded.
Sorrell and I were in the same graduating class in college. I knew his face, but didn't really know him as a student. When I spoke with him recently, it was so fascinating to see someone who is such a adept leader.
posted by plinth at 10:30 AM on December 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Right? It's like, here's your cheap food, and you'll make up the cost in the shame of being seen shopping at the poor peoples' grocery store with all the discarded dregs of regular peoples' supermarkets. I mean, yes, as a stopgap, it helps, but seriously it should be a stopgap and not the solution.
I'm sure they have shame in Goldthorpe, but hopefully also armfuls of understanding on what it is like to be poor.
posted by Thing at 10:57 AM on December 9, 2013
I'm sure they have shame in Goldthorpe, but hopefully also armfuls of understanding on what it is like to be poor.
posted by Thing at 10:57 AM on December 9, 2013
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