Food, charity and the Boardroom

Explore the work of food companies on issues of food and poverty, how these have changed over the COVID-19 crisis and where that work could go next

Our Business Forum workshops in March and April 2021 explored what food companies are doing to address issues of food and poverty, how this has changed during the pandemic and what they should do going forward.

Many food businesses have been getting involved in the charitable response to  hunger, poverty and household food insecurity in the UK in recent years. The COVID-19 outbreak saw more, unprecedented support from food businesses for emergency food charity, with tens of millions of pounds (sterling) and other forms of support donated to community groups as an emergency response to hunger and hardship in the UK during the pandemic. But there are others ways that food companies, big and small, can help address household food insecurity – beyond an emergency response.

Read our summary write-up to better understand the different roles that food companies can play and to see key questions we should be asking.

Dan Crossley, Executive Director chaired the meetings, with support and input from Anna Cura, Lead Systems Strategist (both at the Food Ethics Council) and Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford, Research Fellow at SPERI (Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute), University of Sheffield, author of ‘Hungry Britain: The Rise of Food Charity‘ & co-author of ‘The Rise of Food Charity in Europe‘.

This workshop series is a partnership between the Food Ethics Council and the University of Sheffield.