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 Speaker: Dr Carl Walker, community psychology activist and independent scholar
This talk is based on a recently published piece of research called ‘Managing Hunger Trauma in Community Food Support: Systemic Betrayal, Moral Injury, and Distress in Staff and Volunteers’ (Walker et al., 2025). The session explores the psychological and ethical challenges faced by staff and volunteers in community food support organisations, given our status as an essential yet unofficial part of the UK welfare system. The report calls for urgent action given the scale of moral distress, moral conflicts and burnout in staff and volunteers, the national systemic failure of food policy and provision, growing food insecurity and its profound psychological toll on both those who use and provide community food support. It then covers a new project being developed by a group of food activists, academics and food partnerships to explore what collective representation could look like to give a voice to those in community food support, particularly for staff and volunteers, but also users. Working with a number of food partnerships and Trade Unions, including the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union and the National Education Union (given that over 4,000 schools now provide emergency food support), this project seeks to develop new ways of working together to challenge the drivers of food insecurity and the strain that so many are feeling in the sector. Initial areas of action include a national online launch in the late spring, a national call to action and pledge, a social media campaign and coordinated days of collective action in communities across the country and a National Community Food Support Summit in 2026 on systemic failure and food insecurity.
Reference
Walker C., Schan H., Devlin B., Davenport S.,
Erickson M., & Hanna P. (2025). MANAGING HUNGER TRAUMA IN COMMUNITY FOOD SUPPORT. SYSTEMIC BETRAYAL, MORAL INJURY AND DISTRESS IN STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS. |
Wednesday 29th April 2026, 3-5pm GMT (4-6pm CET)
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