The Fed Up Cafe
Background
A formerly bustling coastal town of around 10,500 people, Stranraer is affected disproportionately by poverty and disadvantage, with nearly one in four people in Stranraer and the Rhins classed as in poverty. Despite being urban in scale, Stranraer is remote in terms of both geography and access to services, and this has shaped some of the complex challenges affecting the community, intensified by the loss of the Irish ferry port service in 2011 and the decline in the town’s status as a harbour town.
The Fed Up Café project was developed in 2018 as one response to these. Supported by the Kilgallioch Community Fund, it is a universal free hot food service which exists to tackle food poverty, social isolation and improve mental health. Through their ‘friendly ear’ approach, they signpost people on to other services which help them address needs Café users have identified, particularly employability. The Café has a strong emphasis on dignity, equality and respect. It aims to provide people with the support and skills to improve their lives without judgement or barriers to access.
Tackling hunger & social isolation
By providing free hot meals and drinks to those who need them, the Fed Up Cafe first and foremost alleviates hunger for those most in need. By creating a safe and welcoming space, it also addresses the social isolation which accompanies poverty, caused when people don’t have spare funds to join social events or activities. Indeed, in addition to a Monday - Friday lunch service, doors open early, so people can pop in for a chat and some breakfast or baking. There are no access criteria which could act as barriers: the service aims to be as accessible and welcoming as possible to enable the inclusion of family members.
Encompassing connections, resources, training and confidence
The café prevents food waste. Alongside providing a welcoming and nurturing environment ‘where people are not judged and can be treated as equal when they come through the doors’, the café is a member of the Fareshare scheme. This means the ingredients it cooks with are donated from local food businesses that would otherwise be thrown away. By working with Fareshare the café is helping food waste in the area. The Café is currently in talks with a local development trust to develop a community fridge using project from the development trust’s food growing project.
The cafe also signposts people towards additional support: it has informal partnerships with Apex Scotland (which supports people with criminal convictions and people at risk of offending), the Rhins Church of Scotland Food Bank, Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership, Loreburn Housing Association, Social Services and Community Mental Health. Given that the complex drivers of poverty often include increasing rent or mental health challenges , connections to these partnerships can help people begin to address some of the more midstream causes - or related consequences - of hunger and isolation.
Furthermore, the cafe trains individuals aspiring to work in hospitality or as chefs. By going beyond the provision of food to support people to gain professional skills through volunteering or employment, the Fed Up Cafe itself begins to address some midstream causes of food poverty. In Stranraer, educational attainment is low (19.2% with no educational qualification), and unemployment is high, which can make it difficult to get out of the cycle of poverty. Supporting people to gain confidence and employment capabilities is an important step in helping them out of this cycle.
The cafe also offers free cooking classes, equipping community members affected by food poverty with the knowledge and skills to make nutritious meals on a limited budget or with minimal ingredients. By sharing this knowledge (while simultaneously fostering a sense of community and belonging), it equips people in the long-term to stay physically and mentally healthier on a limited budget.
Collectively, these efforts at a small-scale will make a positive contribution to the alleviation of multiple indicators of longer-term social deprivation beyond hunger, such as high early mortality. By working to address acute symptoms of poverty (hunger and social isolation), and by supporting people towards practical solutions which they can take action on (partner agencies, volunteer/employment opportunities, cooking classes), the cafe operates across the downstream and the midstream.
Longer-term impact
There are multiple, complex and structural causes of Stranraer’s challenging socio-economic situation indicated by high unemployment, in-work poverty, low educational attainment, high early mortality rates, low car ownership and long school commutes. This means reaching further upstream to tackle food poverty can quickly become a challenge related to employment, education, rent prices, benefit systems and beyond. Upstream approaches could take many forms - and change is almost certainly slower.
But given its positive local reputation, the Fed Up Cafe, in collaboration with others, may have the leverage to influence change at the local town and council level. Could the Cafe campaign for all Stranraer businesses to pay a living wage to employees and help alleviate in-work poverty? Could it bring cooking classes to local schools so that children learn how to cook healthy, nutritious and inexpensive meals? Are there broader questions and ideas to explore around further prevention work? Could research be a valuable use of funds and time?
Nurturing and celebrating a wellbeing economy
Even in a world free of poverty, a vibrant, inclusive cafe equipping employees with new skills and confidence, and hosting or carrying out workshops and activities bringing people together to improve their lives, would remain valuable. The Fed Up Cafe is enabling the wellbeing economy through its downstream and midstream work, as well as embodying the characteristics of wellbeing economy organisations. Such characteristics of capability and community-building should be nourished and celebrated even as we pursue more upstream work.