The need for community place-making cannot be more pressing than during a cost of living crisis, as is the urgency for local engagement in environmental issues.

The lack of affordable food has been felt more acutely during the post-pandemic period with a rise in unemployment, an increase in child poverty and increasing food vulnerability posing significant challenges for families and individuals across Oxfordshire, and according to the Oxfordshire Uncovered Report, affect low income families disproportionally.

Sitting side by side with families affected by food vulnerability is the increasing amount of unnecessary food waste and associated environmental concern. A recent Food Waste Index Report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that isn’t consumed, and opportunities to exploit ways to reduce food waste remain largely untapped. This is slowly changing with localised efforts through community larders and food surplus cafes such as Down to Earth. We are not only concerned with environmental justice, but also with food equity and social justice, and would like to see access to healthy food as a human right. 

Despite Oxfordshire being an affluent county, it is also one of the most expensive places to live. This provides barriers for pockets of the population, particularly those living in rural areas. It means access to public services, affordable housing, transport and opportunities for community building are limited.

Resources

UK consumers ‘don’t know what to cook’ as £1.2bn of food is binned a year, Guardian 20 Jan 2022

Becoming ‘Climavore’: Why Eating With The Planet In Mind Is The Diet You Need, Huffington Post, Oct 2021

New plant-focused diet would ‘transform’ planet’s future, say scientists, Guardian 16 Jan 2019