Foodbank use has become all too common in our towns, and since the coronavirus pandemic, many more are turning to them for help. All foodbanks welcome donations of tinned and packet food, and volunteers work hard to deliver food to those in need, but what about fresh fruit and vegetables?

 For many, access to fresh food is just not possible. We are pretty much self-sufficient in homegrown fruit and veg here at Bridge Cottage. We eat seasonally and with our homegrown and home-cooked food. However, for many, fresh fruit and vegetables are not something they are able to bring to their family’s table.  Fresh fruit and vegetables are priced way over their budget. How then, to address this and maybe share some of what we grow?

For a few years now, we’d dropped surplus cucumbers or apples off at West Northumberland Food Bank or popped them on a table in front of Bridge Cottage with ‘free food, help yourself’ sign. It was small fry though, and it took at an initiative from a Hexham allotment grower, Ginnie O’Farrell to set up the Hexham Fresh Foodbank Group to bring donations of fresh food into some form of organised project, and to increase the awareness and amount of local produce.

We have a Facebook Group, the Hexham Fresh Foodbank Group, and it is through this that we communicate with each other. Many have turned to vegetable growing for the first time, and lockdown gave us all the time to focus on our veggie patches. The Bridge Cottage Way is playing its part in helping new growers learn about growing veg through the posts on this website from The Bridge Cottage Garden, and through social media. We now have over two hundred growers in our community of foodbank growers.

This is how Hexham Fresh Foodbank works: on a Thursday, we let the group know via the Facebook page, what we have available, and this is communicated to the food bank, so they know what is coming. Over the weekend, growers drop off homegrown or home-cooked produce at Matthais Winter, the eco-home shop in Hexham. Now that autumn is upon us, and jam and chutney making is, the food bank is welcoming donations of these. Some are even making pies and crumbles. Sam Gilchrist who runs the foodbank has told us our donations are very welcome. They now have a freezer, so homecooked soups are also welcome.

This week there has been great excitement amongst at the Hexham Fresh Food Bank Group, as BBC Look North wanted to film us. It followed an article in The Guardian which talked about how the coronavirus has led to a UK boom in community food growing.

Guardian feature: How the coronavirus has led to a UK boom in community food growing

 

On Wednesday, Alison Freeman came out to Bridge Cottage with her cameraman, Jas and filmed me in the garden, pulling up leeks, digging potatoes and picking kale. I was interviewed about my views on growing and sharing food, then we all raced into Hexham where Ginnie was waiting at Matthais Winter. They filmed me dropping off, then spoke to Ginnie about how the fresh foodbank came about.

Watch the BBC Feature here: Hexham Growers Donate Surplus to Foodbank

We hear folk saying ’foodbanks don’t want fresh food, as people don’t know what to do with it’. To this I reply that it is true, some folk are reluctant to use fresh food for different reasons; indeed, we are told some don’t have access to a cooker or cooking utensils. Some do not have the culinary skills or knowledge of how to cook some of the veg, and some find it all too much of a challenge. However, we should not be making judgements about who uses a food bank, or what level of skills they have.

We do offer recipe cards and simple cooking instructions for those who would like them. Many are only too grateful for the donations of fruit and veg. We are told there are chefs out of work due to coronavirus who are thrilled at the thought of fresh, local organically grown food. A father of a large family was overjoyed with a monster of a red cabbage that was donated, and the feedback from the food bank is really encouraging. Folk are touched by the kindness of strangers, who take the time to grow, pick and bake for them.

The feature went out on Look North at 6.30 on 2^nd September, and then was picked up by the National News, where it was aired on BBC Breakfast TV, and well and the BBC one o’clock news. So, if you saw someone in a red t-shirt digging up spuds, that was me! We’re hoping very much that other allotment groups and growers think about how they can donate to food banks. We also hope very much that food banks across the country will welcome fresh, locally grown produce onto their shelves. Fresh food is so expensive, and this a way to get it to those who need it most.

Foodbank use, food poverty and the thought of children going hungry is abhorrent in a so-called developed nation in the twenty-first century, and I strongly believe that we must all do our part to help make our communities more resilient in these challenging times. Sustainable living is not just about looking inwards but looking outwards to make sustainable communities. Let’s begin with food.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

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You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

• Sustainable Living
• The Bridge Cottage Garden
• The Bridge Cottage Kitchen
• Month by Month
• Seasonal Recipes
• Foraging – Food for Free

Many thanks for reading.

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