How 'social supermarkets' offer hope and dignity for people facing hunger

Over the last decade, urban poverty has increased dramatically in the UK, with more and more people needing to access emergency food parcels provided by food banks. According to a report published by the House of Commons Library earlier this month, 7.2 million people, or 11% of the UK population, were in households experiencing food poverty during 2022/23. This included 17% of children.

In the same period the Trussell Trust, which runs a network of food banks, supplied their highest-ever number of three-day emergency food parcels. Food banks provide essential and extremely needed emergency food access to people in crisis. However, they can be a segregating space for people using their services, reinforcing a dividing line between those with and without secure access to food. 

In a recent study I, alongside colleagues from the University of Chester and the University of Salford, examined how organisations that deliver food aid can enable transitioning out of segregation when it comes to food access. We found that social supermarkets, which can also be known as community shops, pantries, larders, community supermarkets, citizen supermarkets, grub hubs or food clubs, offer a transitional space between food banks and the market spaces of mainstream food retailers. 

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Just like food banks, social supermarkets have become more common, as unfortunately urban poverty has risen over the past 10 years. However, the model of a social supermarket is very different to that of a food bank. Rather than depending on a food bank referral, which can have more stigma attached, people who cannot access food in traditional shops or supermarkets can do their shopping at a social supermarket, which sells products at a significantly discounted rate or for a nominal fee.  

We researched food aid organisations in two areas of the UK with high levels of deprivation and emergency food parcel distribution, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. Through visits to food banks and social supermarkets and interviews with volunteers and staff, we saw how the difference in approaches changed how the people using the services experienced the segregation issues caused by food poverty. 

Social supermarkets use a more dynamic and flexible model, which is dependent on forms of negotiation, such as securing food surplus donations from traditional supermarkets and using spare warehouse space. This means that social supermarkets are more connected to the traditional food market, reducing the distance between food aid and the mainstream. 

In our interviews with social supermarket workers and volunteers, one theme that came up a lot was the emphasis on dignity and choice for service users. A social supermarket offers more choice in terms of products and even the word ‘supermarket’ makes it seem less out of the ordinary. A food bank on the other hand provides people with little to no choice, often in an unusual setting to get food, such as a community centre, which further removes people from ‘mainstream’ society. People accessing emergency food aid sometimes have to form long queues publicly outside the premises or are made visible through glass-fronted buildings, which can all add to the stigma that people experience. 

Social supermarkets are also more likely to provide access to additional services to help people transition out of poverty. During our visits, people told us about additional support arranged by the social supermarkets including job clubs, cooking clubs and benefits and debt management advice. Clubs can provide a sense of community and provide people with skills and information, which can help people transition out of needing emergency food.  

On the other hand, food banks deal with people in a state of immediate crisis, and so understandably focus on that crisis. During our interviews, some food bank workers told us that they had to stop offering additional services because demand was so high that they needed to put all their efforts into giving people food, rather than providing transitional support. 

Social supermarkets have created a transitional space for people to get the food they need at an accessible price, for a longer period than a food bank can. Varied and community-focussed services offer people a support system, which can offer advice on how to get out of food poverty long-term. This is not to say that food banks are doing a bad job at all. For many people food banks are a lifeline and the start of a journey to get the support they need.  

The fact of the matter remains that no one should be going hungry in 21st century Britain, and urban poverty is deep and complex. The only way to address the issue of food poverty once and for all is through significant changes in government policy. But while food poverty remains a problem for the UK, social supermarkets are creating places where people can begin to transition out of food poverty, hopefully for the long-term. 

Caroline Moraes, professor of marketing and consumer research at Birmingham Business School and co-director of the Centre for Responsible Business.

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