#digitalbiospheric: putting food banks out of business

Food banks have become one of the fastest growing charitable industries in the UK, with at least three new food banks opening each week.

Charity organisations Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty estimate that over 500,000 people are now reliant on the use of food banks and receipt of food parcels, a figure substantially higher than the headline figure of 350,000 supplied by the Trussell Trust in 2013.

This project looks at the potential of digital transformations such as the internet or social media, to build long-term capacity in deprived urban communities to address food austerity. The project builds on the case study of the Biospheric Foundation (see Urban food project).

The Biospheric Foundation is ‘part farm, part urban research laboratory’, set in the heart of the Blackfriars district in Salford, Greater Manchester. It was established in part as a response to increasing issues over food poverty in the city, but also as an attempt to eradicate these issues - through building local capacity for a systemic approach to food production, supply, distribution, waste and diet in an inner city area.

The project will seeks to co-develop a Digital Action Plan to examine how different technologies can build capacity to address food austerity in the area of East Salford and for the Biospheric Foundation in the longer term.