PAYBACK PATHWAYS TO EMPLOYMENT AND FOOD SECURITY

PROGRESS REPORT 2^nd MAY 2022

Project plans and developments as outlined in 21^st March, 4^th April and 18^th April reports (above) remain in place and progressing  to plan.

Further scoping of similar initiatives and plans for similar complementary projects in Stockport, across Greater Manchester and beyond is continuing and their implications for the initial piloting of Payback Pathways and its future development are outlined below, together with further Action Points  for the Payback Pathways Project over the next reporting period, in addition to those carried over from the reports of 4^th April and 18^th April.

Trussell Trust and Community Payback

Trussell Trust https://www.trusselltrust.org the largest third sector Food Bank provider in the UK, is working with Fareshare and Greater Manchester Community Payback to set up a Food Bank in Oldham staffed 100% by Community Payback Workers under the supervision of a Probation CP Supervisor.

Trussell are also appointing Regional  Pantry Development Workers across the UK to set up Pantries as progression routes from emergency Food Bank provision. These Pantries will also be at least partially staffed by CP workers. All these new Food Banks and Pantries will be 100% reliant on surplus food and therefore likely to increase the pressure on Fareshare to keep up with rapidly increasing demand.

Funding bulk buy food supplies

As one response to this problem Fareshare in Greater Manchester are exploring the feasibility of establishing a fund to  bulk buy wholesale non-surplus food supplies to supplement dwindling supplies of surplus food in the same way as Foundations Stockport plan to do with the Payback Pathways project . It is not known yet how Fareshare plan to finance their new fund, whereas Foundations plan to finance theirs from the profits of the Payback Pathways social enterprises, as outlined in the project plan for the present project.

Church Action on Poverty have also established a ‘Friends of Your Local Pantry’ fund to do the same – bulk buy wholesale supplies for the Your Local Pantry network. This is financed entirely by charitable donations, but is not proving popular with  member Pantries as Church Action on Poverty take 25% of the fund to cover their admin costs.

There is interest in Wythenshawe in establishing Payback Pathways social enterprise(s) to finance school breakfast clubs in the area, starting with liquid fertilizer production to be retailed as part of a range of ‘Grow Your Own Veg’ Starter Kits, with all profits donated to local school breakfast clubs. This initiative would be on exactly the same lines as proposed in the Awards for All project for providing additional  funding for Stockport Pantries, but would be targeted at School Breakfast Club approaches to Food Security rather than Pantries.

This is seen as potentially an ‘Incredible Edible’ initiative https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk and is actively supported by Mike Kane MP, sponsor of the Incredible Edible ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign and Member of Parliament for Wythenshawe and Sale East. Discussions are ongoing as to the feasibility of running  this initiative through Real Food Wythenshawe and the Wythenshawe Park Horticultural Centre https://www.realfoodwythenshawe.com/wythenshawe-park-horticultural-centre  It has also been suggested that this might form the pilot Payback Pathways social enterprise for the Awards for All Project rather than ‘starting from scratch’ with the Stockport Pantries in Stockport. This will be further explored during the next reporting period.

Action Point 1: Explore further with stakeholders whether Payback Pathways social enterprises’ profits should go to finance  Foundations Stockport’s Bulk Buy Fund (as in the original project plan) or go to Greater Manchester Fareshare’s Bulk Buy Fund for Foundations to ‘buy into’?

Discussions are ongoing with stakeholders about the destination of profits made by Payback Pathways social enterprises. It is understood this will be further discussed by the Foundations Stockport Board at their meeting on 10^th May 2022.

The possibilities raised by the Wythenshawe initiative make this question somewhat superfluous if the project decides to ‘run with’ Wythenshawe rather than Stockport as the Payback Pathways social enterprises’ profits would go to local school Breakfast Clubs as the pathway to food security rather than to Pantries and/or their suppliers.

Action Point 1a: Explore feasibility of basing the Payback Pathways Awards for All Project social enterprise development in Wythenshawe rather than Stockport.

Community Payback and ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’

There are increasing numbers of Food Security initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond which are

• Using Community Payback Workers to staff their operations or thinking of doing so.
• Seeking more sustainable ways of accessing surplus and non surplus food supplies for distribution to people in food poverty.

These initiatives can be loosely grouped together as going ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’.

Some examples from Greater Manchester and elsewhere include the following (this is an indicative rather than comprehensive list) All appear to face the same problems of how to access non-surplus food in order to supplement the dwindling supplies of surplus food available without raising prices/membership fees. Some are also at different stages of growing their own food for their own members/service users as well as for distribution through Food Banks and Pantries.

Many are based on more explicitly co-operative lines with greater degree of member/service user control and ownership than that offered by Food Banks and Pantries. All perhaps would further benefit from considering the Payback Pathways model. This could then potentially form the basis of a national roll-out once proof of concept has been achieved by the present project.

Examples include

• Greater Together Manchester’s ‘Social Supermarkets’  https://www.greatertogethermanchester.org being piloted in Ancoats/Miles Platting  in conjunction with Manchester Urban Diggers https://www.wearemud.org
• St Barnabas Food Co-operative Oldham https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/L11_1-CS-Food-co-operative-in-Oldham.pdf
• St Giles Pantry Leeds https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/what-we-do/tackling-poverty/st-giles-pantry
• Co-operation Town https://cooperation.town
• Growing projects on church land through Incredible Edible’s ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk Church projects have been contacted in Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Nottingham, Manchester Cathedral, Salford Cathedral, Exeter and Cornwall.
• Growing projects at Probation Approved Premises through Incredible Edible’s ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign. Approved Premises projects have been contacted in North Wales, (x2) and Manchester (x2)
• Growing projects at prisons through Incredible Edible’s ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign and University of Central Lancashire’s ‘Greener on the outside  for prisons’ programme (GOOP) https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/activity/greener-on-the-outside-for-prisons Prison projects have been contacted at HMP Styal, HMP Haverigg and HMP Forest Bank.
• Debdale Eco-Park Manchester. https://www.meen.org.uk/Debdale_Eco_Centre

Action Point 2: undertake a more comprehensive scoping exercise of ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Action Point 2b:- undertake a more comprehensive scoping exercise of funding and supply of surplus and non-surplus food to School Breakfast Clubs across Greater Manchester and beyond.

The more comprehensive scoping exercise is ongoing and will be reported on further in the next reporting period ending 16^th  May 2022.

The scoping exercise is beginning to take a somewhat different turn with the advent of the Wythenshawe initiative potentially changing the focus of pathways to food security to funding for and direct supply of locally grown food for School Breakfast Clubs rather than solely on ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond. This will be further reported on in the next reporting period ending 16^th May 2022.

Action Point 3: undertake further feasibility work concerning the applicability and appetite for the Payback Pathways model of funding purchase of non-surplus food supplies for ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Action Point 3a:- undertake further feasibility work concerning the applicability and appetite for the Payback Pathways model of funding purchase of non-surplus food supplies for School Breakfast Club initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

The appetite for the Payback Pathways model investigation is ongoing as an integral part of the scoping exercise and will be reported on further in the next reporting period ending 16th   May 2022.

Social Enterprises in the Payback Pathways Model

Scoping work concerning possible partners in the development of the three social enterprises identified in the last report has begun as the first stage in business planning.

The following have been identified and discussions are ongoing:-

• Liquid Fertilizer:- Incredible Edible CiC  https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk . NW Prisons Greener on the Outside of Prison (GOOP) project https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/activity/greener-on-the-outside-for-prisons Debdale Eco-Park Manchester (Venford Rouse). https://www.meen.org.uk/Debdale_Eco_Centre SP Square CiC (Anne Sikking) https://www.spsquare.org

Urban Mushrooms:- Manchester Mushroom Co-operative https://www.uk.coop/directory/myco-manchester-mushroom  Manchester Urban Diggers https://www.wearemud.org Manchester Cathedral Volition Community https://volitioncommunity.org

Juicing and Bottling:- Rooted in Hull https://www.rootedinhull.org.uk  Small Scale Bottling www.smallscalebottling.com

Action Point 4: continue scoping  and business planning with priority given to Liquid Fertilizer.

Scoping and business planning with Liquid Fertilizer as the priority is ongoing and will be reported on further in the next reporting period ending 16^th  May 2022.