Cost of Living Crisis: Youth-led solutions for affordable food
This case study was written by Stanley at YAC. Names have been changed to protect the service user’s identity.
Eva is 22 years old and living in Brighton having moved here to study in September 2020. After leaving her course she now works 40 hours a week as a support worker, earning just above minimum wage. Before she had a stable job she was ‘really, really struggling’ and was accessing Universal Credit, but even now she finds that ‘everything is so expensive’ – from public transport to food. Even in full time work, it is increasingly difficult for young people to keep up with rising living costs.
Experience of food in our community
Eva says the main driving factor for her food consumption is cost. She is environmentally conscious but says that it’s ‘very difficult to be more sustainable’ with the rising cost of food in Brighton.
Even though she wants to make more ethical choices the price of her choices has to remain at the front of her mind. This is known as a value-action gap – where health and sustainability are important drivers of consumption but in many cases are trumped by cost.
Before accessing our Food Market, Eva was buying and consuming a lot of frozen food and food on offer as this was nearly always cheaper than fresh food. When having to consider her budget, fresh food just couldn’t be a priority.
However, Eva is a keen cook and loves to share meals with her partner. She says that without this mutual support she would cook far less and would resort to draining money on takeaways or ready meals after long shifts when she is lacking energy to cook – an increasingly common trend in the UK.
Eva thinks that the main barriers preventing young people from accessing healthy and sustainable food are cost and knowledge, saying ‘It’s difficult to be healthy if you don’t have the money’. She has experienced how young people around her lack the skills not only to make meals but what makes a balanced, healthy meal, highlighting how many ‘never learned how to cook; or not even how to cook, but learn what’s healthy and what’s not’.
Experience of The Food Market
After struggling to buy healthy and sustainable food with a limited budget, Eva found out about our Food Market through her Employment Support Worker. She now does most of her food shopping weekly with her partner, usually choosing a ‘large shop’ of 15 items for £6.
The price is a big driving factor for Eva – she has noticed that since accessing our Market she has saved more money and that as a couple they ‘never have to worry about running out of food now, whereas we did a bit before, you know when it’s like the end of the month and the only thing you can eat is rice for 3 days. It’s really nice not to have to worry about not being able to eat’.
The fact that the Food Market is a sustainable option, but crucially an affordable one, is also important to Eva. It means she can align her ethical values with her food consumption without worrying about her budget.
She has also been able to improve her cooking skills and has ‘opened her eyes’ to a bigger variety of affordable ingredients, and she cooks with less frozen ingredients and more fresh food now than she did before. Eva also tells me that being autistic the Food Market provides a less stressful environment for her to shop in.
Looking to the future
I asked Eva what she would like to see in our country with regards to food consumption and prices. She spoke passionately about food waste: ‘there should be a better regulating body, because I used to work in a shop and we would throw out everything, we weren’t even allowed to give it to homeless people, and I think that’s absolutely appalling’. She also thinks there should be a cap on the cost of fresh food, because ‘everyone should be able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables. I can’t imagine that many people disagree with that’.
In terms of changes within our smaller community in Brighton, Eva thinks that ‘being able to offer free or affordable education classes on things like balancing a budget, how to cook, what things are healthy. A lot of these things that I think don’t get taught in schools, I think that would be really helpful and I feel like maybe that would help combat some of the issues in our community’.
What to do next
YAC Food Market is open for young people aged 16-25. Read our Food Market Mission Statement to find out more.
We are currently looking for volunteers for our Market. We always welcome donations of food, toiletries, or other products to our Market! Just drop them off at YAC during our opening hours.
Find out how you can access emergency food.
Find out where you can donate time, food or money to local food aid organisations.
