The Dignity in Practice project was established by Nourish Scotland and the Poverty Truth Community to help people who design, deliver, and take part in responses to food insecurity to reflect on and improve current practice. It aims to promote dignity and embed the right to food, and it is delivered as a partnership between people with lived experience of food insecurity and people working on approaches to addressing food insecurity.
Ending household food insecurity requires all of us to work together. We will need both national action for example, to secure adequate household income, and the strategic and coordinated work of local governments, community food projects, the NHS, housing associations and others involved in approaches to food insecurity to deliver on health and social inclusion.
We need to move away from charitable responses to food insecurity towards a future where everyone has access to food of their choice, this food is available to them and adequate for their needs, as a matter of their human right.
This website contains a range of activities and resources designed to help anyone who designs, delivers, funds or takes part in services address food insecurity to embed dignity in this work. The materials were developed and adapted with funding from the Scottish Government and in partnership with organisations throughout Scotland between 2016 and 2023.
Dignity training of local authority groups made up of people involved in approaches to food insecurity begins. Groups include people from the council, NHS, people with lived experience of food insecurity, community food initiatives, and others in the sector. These groups go on to train others in the sector.
The Dignity Project partners with Govan Community Project to adapt the Dignity in Practice tools to reflect the experiences of people in the asylum process.
The Dignity in Practice Learning Event Series is launched inviting stakeholders across Scotland to reflect on the relationship between dignity, the right to food and the wider food system. The Scottish Government commits to “Ending the Need for Foodbanks”.
Project moved online to support existing and new initiatives responding to food insecurity exacerbated by COVID-19. Human rights language is embedded in our work to promote a sustainable solution to food insecurity.
Dignity Project begins working alongside community food practitioners and wider stakeholders. The initial Dignity Principles are adapted to provide a way for community food providers to reflect on the design and delivery of their work and engage with the principles from the perspective of someone experiencing food insecurity.
Working Group on Food Poverty publishes the Dignity: Ending Hunger Together in Scotland report, with 4 Dignity Principles to guide the design & implementation of dignified responses to food insecurity. The Scottish Government commits to place dignity at the centre of approaches to food insecurity. This created a welcome opportunity for all those involved in the response to reflect on supporting people beyond charitable, emergency provision.
Scottish Ministers appointed an Independent Working Group on Food Poverty tasked to consider the issues related to food poverty and make recommendations to the Scottish Government on future actions.