Today, I’ve seen a couple of stories related to food banks, etc. (as a supporter of Trussell Trust) – this video, featured in the Guardian is a very clever mini-play that very cleverly challenges the thinking that ‘there’s always something that can be made from odds and ends in the cupboard’ (well, you could from mine, but that’s another topic!)
As one of my friends said, the trouble is that these policies are being made by people for whom £20 is a taxi fare, and not the choice between heating and eating.
The other story I’ve spotted is #ClearaPlate – which also seems to have the support of the Trussell Trust:
This seems to be me to be well-meaning, but rather misguided. Surely the issue is about thinking about what we put on our plates in the first place – we certainly don’t want to reinforcing the notions that were common in many of our childhoods “think of the starving children in Africa, don’t waste any of it”. Yes, seek to reduce waste, but not by forcing yourself to eat food that you don’t want. I remember someone once saying, if it’s not waste, it will be waist … and it’s definitely one of the rules that Beyond Chocolate likes to challenge – as it encourages you to be more mindful about your eating .. but not by treating yourself as a dustbin!
Dr Bex Lewis is passionate about helping people engage with the digital world in a positive way, where she has more than 20 years’ experience. She is Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University and Visiting Research Fellow at St John’s College, Durham University, with a particular interest in digital culture, persuasion and attitudinal change, especially how this affects the third sector, including faith organisations, and, after her breast cancer diagnosis in 2017, has started to research social media and cancer. Trained as a mass communications historian, she has written the original history of the poster Keep Calm and Carry On: The Truth Behind the Poster (Imperial War Museum, 2017), drawing upon her PhD research. She is Director of social media consultancy Digital Fingerprint, and author of Raising Children in a Digital Age: Enjoying the Best, Avoiding the Worst (Lion Hudson, 2014; second edition in process) as well as a number of book chapters, and regularly judges digital awards. She has a strong media presence, with her expertise featured in a wide range of publications and programmes, including national, international and specialist TV, radio and press, and can be found all over social media, typically as @drbexl.