In a hardscrabble Liverpool location, a community "pantry" (not a food bank) feeds both bodies and souls

We’ve been wondering whether the cost-of-living crisis, and the current government’s poor and sclerotic response to it, is going to generate a wave of creative community self-determination, similar to the mutual aid networks that sprang up around early Covid. We are looking out for operations that combine conviviality and festivity with sheer need - aware of the requirement to nourish souls, and dignity, as much as bodies. This is the first of two blogs which show this spirit - which we regard as central to the concept of a CAN.

A great example of this is on show in the Guardian short documentary embedded above, taken from their excellent Made in Britain strand. It’s where Liverpool’s Kensington Fields Community Centre runs “a Pantry, not a Food Bank”, as Sue and Myra the founders put it. The film shows how their spirit of fun and care maintains dignity for families who may feel stigmatised about attending.

Also worth noting is the shift in emphasis in these films, from a strong narrator/investigator like John Harris, towards “an aim to involve the communities and individuals who are typically under-represented in the media to participate in the production process”. A shift we highly approve of - as communities should be contributing to an alternative media system.