Influencing Policy
Feeding Britain is a charity working to combat hunger and food poverty in the UK. As a national network it brings together people working on the ground to share best practice, ideas and similar issues and challenges they face. With this information, Feeding Britain aims to address the root causes of hunger through national policy reform and legislation.
Find out more at: www.feedingbritain.org
The Welcome Network is a Feeding Britain pilot area and Stephanie Ellis, the Welcome Network Manager, is a Trustee of Feeding Britain.
As a Feeding Britain pilot area, the Welcome Network, meets up with the other pilot areas every six months to share emerging issues and ideas, undertake learning exchange visits and act as part of a bigger group on national policy.
As a part of this national organisation, we the Welcome Network, can use our understanding of the issues on the ground to influence changes to policy.
After listening to the lived experience of Community Inspirers - experts with lived experience of poverty on the West Cheshire Poverty Truth commission - we helped establish a ‘Foodbank users group’ creating a link between the Mid-Cheshire and West Cheshire foodbanks. We also acted upon the issues raised by the Community Inspirers such as the need to cater for the dietary requirements of foodbank users. We connected up Community Inspirers to work with the foodbanks to ensure that foodbank volunteers understand the dietary needs associated with health conditions such as diabetes.
We enabled the experiences and views of Young Inspirers of the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission on the deficiencies of the free school meal allowance to feed into policy work at the local and national level. We did so by linking students from two local secondary schools into the school meal work of the local authority’s Eat Well Be Active healthy living framework and to Feeding Britain work at the national level. These partnerships and conversations culminated in Chris Matheson, MP for the City of Chester, asking a question in the House of Commons on 2nd March 2020 drawing on evidence provided by the Young Inspirers on the problems with the current free school meal model, as can be seen in the video below.
As a part of this national organisation, we the Welcome Network, can use our understanding of the issues on the ground to influence changes to policy.
After listening to the lived experience of Community Inspirers - experts with lived experience of poverty on the West Cheshire Poverty Truth commission - we helped establish a ‘Foodbank users group’ creating a link between the Mid-Cheshire and West Cheshire foodbanks. We also acted upon the issues raised by the Community Inspirers such as the need to cater for the dietary requirements of foodbank users. We connected up Community Inspirers to work with the foodbanks to ensure that foodbank volunteers understand the dietary needs associated with health conditions such as diabetes.
We enabled the experiences and views of Young Inspirers of the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission on the deficiencies of the free school meal allowance to feed into policy work at the local and national level. We did so by linking students from two local secondary schools into the school meal work of the local authority’s Eat Well Be Active healthy living framework and to Feeding Britain work at the national level. These partnerships and conversations culminated in Chris Matheson, MP for the City of Chester, asking a question in the House of Commons on 2nd March 2020 drawing on evidence provided by the Young Inspirers on the problems with the current free school meal model, as can be seen in the video below.