Community Payback Pathways to Healthy Eating and Food Security

When we started out on this project, we had the relatively modest ambition of enlisting people on probation subject to an Unpaid Work Requirement of a Community Order (Community Payback) to produce healthy ready meals for community-run pantries as a way of paying back to the local communities against whom they had offended

What we didn’t realise at the time,  was the significance of working with Community Payback to do this and its  implications for strengthening community power in the foundational economy, not only of food, but also in the wider foundational economy of health, social care and community safety.

Community Payback strengthening the foundational economy

The foundational economy is that sector of the economy which supplies the everyday but essential goods and services that make life worth living in local communities and ensure their effective functioning. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) Foundational Economy Innovation Fund pointed out to us that what we were doing was not only producing healthy ready meals for donation to  community-run pantries, but it was also strengthening  the foundational economy in food by opening up access to affordable healthy food for everyone irrespective of their income level.

What’s more, GMCA  pointed out that this also has a knock-on effect  on strengthening other sectors of the foundational economy - using the supply of food  to improve people’s health through an improved diet and to improve social care through community pantry-run meals on wheels services for example.

At the same time  working with Community Payback to do this also strengthens the Community Safety  sector of the foundational economy, using  food supplied by people on Community Payback to help reduce their reoffending and pay back for previous offending, making life worth living in those communities against whom they have offended and ensuring they function more effectively.

Community Payback catalysing  community power in the foundational economy

As a result of these unforeseen implications of our project GMCA invited us to apply for funding to further develop and build on this model of Community Payback strengthening the wider foundational economy by supplying healthy affordable food to community-run  pantries.

But this was not the only unforeseen implication of our project. The National Lottery who fund it, have recently committed to putting community power at the heart of their funding in England from 2026. By community power they mean local communities being able to increase their agency, power and control over the foundational economy in the places they live – power and control over the  essential goods and services they use and the decisions that affect their lives.

Our project does just that. It uses Community Payback to enable community-run pantries to increase their power and control, not only over their food supply, but also over their health, social care and community safety. Our project doesn’t just use Community Payback to supply  healthy meals to community-run pantries. It  makes community power a reality in those pantries. It catalyses community power in the foundational economy and so has significant long term implications for putting community power at the heart of Lottery funding in England from 2026.