Why is Serve The People International not a food bank? What do we do differently and why?
Are we a food bank?
Short answer is no, we are not a food bank. Remember the core idea of a food bank was to be an emergency service, that the welfare system should do the rest. What was meant to be “temporary” has become embedded into our society as normal and as a business of sorts. It is also a model we do not want to emulate or copy. Begging people at supermarkets to buy products or donations of food is not sustainable. We have also seen with the fuel price issues people refusing food as it has to be cooked.
Another issue with food banks is that they keep power structures intact. As of 2022, there are 2500 of them in the so-called ‘UK’ alone not including other forms of business-sponsored ‘help’. This enables the problem to be passed onto people who suffer from the ruling class, not the ruling class themselves.
All of this is out of the hands of the people. It is imposed on them. By shaming hunger as a personal failing or lack of work ethic, it disempowers the people. We seek to empower the hungry, not shame them or control them.
We are entering into a new phase of crisis where understanding the needs of the people and being flexible to them in control of what they need and asking for it. As we are now facing the death and starvations of people like never before.
What is Serve The People then?
Our programme is a political one. Not based on pitying the people, it is about investing in our communities so we can take care of the roots of the problems and pull them out.
We want to be as independent as possible so we can serve the needs of the local community. It is not a business, an NGO, or a charity, but a programme for the removal of the social and economic forces that produce poverty and suffering in our communities.
This is called a survival programme in the style of the Black Panthers.
We are made up of people failed by the capitalist state and charities having strict criteria or not wanting us dependent on their services. The programme is unconditionally there for those left behind for whatever reason. It will be run by people that use the service, unlike charities and food bank.
In short, food banks are there to be the ‘bread’ in ‘bread and circuses’. We are here to be the ‘bread’ in Peace, Land, and Bread.
