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Tackling food insecurity in King's local community

01 June 2021

Dr Barry Quinn is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Simulation and Team-based Education and an Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry in the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences. As well as volunteering to support the national vaccination programme earlier this year, Barry took part in King’s Civic Challenge. He worked with a team of students and alumni to support the Borough Food Cooperative, a local initiative which distributes donated food at subsidised prices to more than 400 families in south London to help reduce food bills and tackle food insecurity.

Barry’s team won the ‘Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero hunger’ award at this year’s King’s Civic Challenge Grand Final. This was one of four awards which recognised projects aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were made possible through King’s innovative contract with furniture supplier SouthernsBroadstock. To support the Borough Food Collective in overcoming food insecurity and encouraging healthier habits, the team proposed a free multimedia cookbook, cooking tutorials and recipe kits to encourage service users and volunteers to celebrate their stories around food.

In this feature, Barry shares some insights from his voluntary experience with the Borough Food Cooperative.

Supporting local communities with the Borough Food Cooperative

As the COVID-19 pandemic started and individuals lost their jobs, the need for food security in south London increased. In Southwark it was found that one in five parents were skipping meals to provide food for their children. The Borough Food Cooperative opened in October 2020 and has operated throughout the pandemic to provide essential supplies to local households to help tackle food insecurity and encourage healthy eating.

With help from organisations like FareShare, the Borough Food Cooperative (BFC) acts as a subsidised supermarket, where members can stop in and pick up £20 to £25 worth of groceries for £4.50.

Membership is flexible so members only pay when they come. This could be three times a week, once a month or anything in between. Members can choose from an assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables, including tenderstem broccoli, green and red mangos, plantain, oranges, satsumas, conference pears, leeks and heritage carrots. The BFC stocks dry store goods too, such as pasta, eggs, tinned tomatoes, tinned vegetables, baked beans, lentils, rice, bread, biscuits, crisps, cereal and chocolate, and offers a range of chilled goods, like milk, butter, cream, yoghurt, cheese, sausages and sometimes even steaks. Delicious meals made in the kitchen are also up for grabs!

Joining the King’s Civic Challenge

The King’s Civic Challenge asked for student and staff volunteers. I signed up and joined the Borough Food Cooperative team. I was the only staff member in our team, along with an alumnus (Lindsey), BFC member (Adam) and student members (Catherine, Hannah, and Aditya).

The Civic Challenge provided excellent talks and seminars on business and project management as well as training on how to deliver a ‘dragon’s den’ pitch. These provided invaluable learning opportunities and perspectives on disciplines other than my own. I am sure everyone involved benefited from increasing their transferable skills, which will particularly assist our students in later life.

When working with BFC, our Civic Challenge team wanted to engage the community more, increase the appropriate target group members and encourage healthy eating. One of the ways we achieved this was by getting users to share recipes online and showing how nutritious meals could be prepared easily and quickly.

I will look back during this period and know that I made a small, but hopefully useful, contribution to people’s lives in south London. I think that all students and staff would benefit from some experience in serving society as it puts our own life worries into perspective.– Dr Barry Quinn, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Simulation and Team-based Education and Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry in the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

Memorable moments

What I discovered by volunteering with the BFC through the King’s Civic Challenge was that many of the users were living alone. Attending the cooperative allowed them to connect with local people at a safe distance while following COVID regulations during the lockdowns. It was clear that there are a lot of lonely people in Southwark. We offered free tea/coffee as frequently individuals had to queue outside in the cold so that they could socially distance. The BFC also offered to deliver food to individuals who were shielding or unable to get to the cooperative in person.

As a dentist and staff member of the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences (FoDOCS), who volunteered for the BFC, I was frequently asked by the members what I did for a job. This of course then started many conversations either about their experiences of dentistry or asking for advice about their teeth and how they could be seen at the dental hospital. One of the members even removed their denture and asked me how it could be improved! I am sure that FoDOCS colleagues have experienced similar situations when they explain where they work.

It was a pleasure to see families smiling with happy children, probably because they were out of the home, but also choosing the food to cook. It was also great working with students from across King’s, whom I would never normally have met from different faculties. It was inspiring to see their enthusiasm.

One of the greatest highlights from this experience, of course, was when our team won the Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero hunger award at the King’s Civic Challenge Grand Final. This award provided £5,000 for BFC, as well as management consultancy support to help develop the cooperative further.

Service at King’s

King’s is situated in one of the wealthiest cities in the world and yet there are social inequalities on our doorstep. It is all too easy to ’turn a blind eye’ and not notice what is going on. King’s Civic Challenge offered a great opportunity to help families, the elderly and the lonely to eat healthily, socially interact and hopefully make their lives more pleasurable during these turbulent times.

I will look back during this period and know that I made a small, but hopefully useful, contribution to people’s lives in south London. I think that all students and staff would benefit from some experience in serving society as it puts our own life worries into perspective.