Fighting Food Poverty

Agency: Co-op

In 2020 Co-op came together with their agencies, a sports personality, celebrities, the private sector and the public to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the UK: food poverty. In doing so, they helped to create one of the most powerful collaborative advocacy campaigns of our time.

Using ingenuity and creativity, the campaign involved multiple acts of co-operation, each tackling the fight against hunger:

- A TV campaign, brought about by a co-operation between Co-op colleagues, Marcus Rashford, Fareshare and the nation, provided vital funds for those experiencing food insecurity

- An open letter to MPs broadcast on social media urged the government to #maketheuturn on free school meals policy

- The co-creation of the 'End Child Food Poverty' website, provided a place where people can both get and offer help, and where partners can get involved

- An online music festival organised by Co-op and Everybody Belongs Here, also raised money for the cause

The campaign has brought multiple organisations together around the issue of access to food. Traditional adversaries put their competitive concerns aside and collaborated as allies to create Marcus Rashford's Child Food Poverty Task force. And, most strikingly, it helped put enough political pressure on Downing Street to force two spectacular government U-turns on the issue of free school meals during the school holidays.

To date, the campaign has provided food for over four million children, but perhaps most importantly of all, it has established Child Food Poverty as one of the most pressing issues of our time.