Councillors clash over food banks v cash

Councillors have clashed over the best way to help people in crisis and whether that should be with cash rather than food banks.

Green councillors Bruno De Oliviera and Raphael Hill urged fellow members of Brighton and Hove City Council to support the goal of a “food bank-free” city and a cash-first approach.

But they were criticised by Labour councillors who said that the focus should be on preventative and long-term support for people in food poverty and continued support for food banks.

The Greens said that food parcels were not a “permanent substitute for social security”, citing organisations such as the Child Poverty Action Group and Trussell Trust preferring “cash first” support to food banks.

At a meeting of the full council last Thursday (26 March), Concillor De Oliviera said that while he respected those holding the safety net, he rejected the system that made their work necessary.

He said: “Food banks were never meant to become a normal feature of city life. They were presented as a temporary solution to support during a crisis … Instead, they’ve become a shadow welfare state.”

Councillor Hill read out a statement from Jerome Cox-Strong, from the Pankhurst Pantry, who said that people should not have to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children.

He said: “At a fundamental level, food banks simply should not need to exist. That they do is the story of ongoing austerity, of government after government relying on volunteers like me to paper over the cracks of their failure to act.

“The story of food projects in this city is of organisations that often find themselves on the brink, always needing more funding, supplies, resources, volunteer hours because we’re a crisis response that has been forced into something permanent.”

Labour councillor Mitchie Alexander, the council’s cabinet member for communities, equalities, public health and adult social care, said that the council was working to reduce poverty through its “cost of living strategy” and a poverty reduction steering group.

Councillor Alexander said: “We all want to see the end of the need for food banks. But currently, this isn’t a reality.

“Food banks are still needed as residents are still in food crisis. As a city we must work together.”

Fellow Labour councillor David McGregor said that he did not doubt the heartfelt compassion behind the Greens’ position but that it showed a lack of knowledge of living in poverty.

The Whitehawk and Marina ward councillor said that few people from his background became councillors and that he was spoken down to when speaking about poverty.

Councillor McGregor said: “Of course we want to see a city where no one needs a food bank. Of course we do. Nobody should need to have emergency food support in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

“But it is a shining example of failure of a Tory government in the last 14 years.”

Conservative councillor Emma Hogan said that alternatives to food banks should be considered but studies from elsewhere in the world showed support for both money and food aid.

Councillor Hogan said: “To my mind, there was no clear evidence of either being better and certainly I could not find evidence to support this in the UK.

“We are therefore neither in agreement or opposed to this.”

Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh, who has run a food bank from her home for the past six years, said that she did not want to “morph into a community support hub”.

Councillor Fishleigh said: “None of the food groups I know say that the Green group has engaged with them (about this).

“If they had, we would point them to the ‘beyond food banks’ initiative and a ton of other things that are already happening outside.”