"Cash-First Matters so I'm not left feeling ashamed"

"Cash-First Matters so I'm not left feeling ashamed to ask for what my family need just to live."

Paddy McKenna, Freelance Cash-First Project Lead

Cash-First and why it matters was a focus of our contribution to the Myth-Busting workshop at the Cash-First Communities Conference, organised by the Independent Food Aid Network and Trussell. Together with two members of the group I've been working alongside throughout the cash-first work, we wanted to address any question that cash-first doesn't matter - that people having money to buy the food that they like, that their families need, at a time that's convenient for them, at a place that they want to go to, doesn't matter.

Beginning with this video that we made as part of our Cash-First Toolkit, we showed the reality of the alternative: of walking 4.2 miles to a foodbank not knowing if it'll be food that your child with autism and food sensitivities will eat. The reality of arriving at a new place to receive food support and being asked to show your Asylum ID to prove you meet their criteria. The reality of your child telling you that they're hungry. And so many other realities that we haven't yet heard, woven tightly into people's day and night as they navigate being "sent from pillar to post."

We read out statements from the full group on why cash-first matters - you can read them all here - and we closed with our other video, which helped us with our final myth bust: that poverty is the result of individual failure.

We know cash-first matters not only from these experiences so generously shared with us, but also from the momentum and energy across the conference, where many people and organisations gathered - some GCFN members - to share, to learn, and to work toward a more dignified approach to food support.

Through my own work across community food - as a Community Gardener, a Community Food Programme lead, and a volunteer with Love and Solidarity, a food justice community group - I've learned that where there's food, there's conversations about the price of food. And where there's conversations about the price of food, there's the opportunity to talk about money worries. And where there's opportunities to talk about money worries, there's the chance to listen, to signpost, and to support people to access the money and advice they may need.

Our call to action: spend time with the Cash-First Toolkit that the group co-created. Hear their voices through their videos, their poetry, their soundbites. Take part in the workshops and resources designed to guide us all toward a more cash-first approach.

I want to end with this powerful statement from a group member that really captures what all this work is about:

“Cash-First matters because I matter”.

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You can find out more about cash-first through our online Food Insecurity Resource Space, and feel free to get in touch to chat about how you might bring cash-first approaches into your own context and with your current resources: [email protected]