Sign In
Basket 0 Items

BASKET SUMMARY

Sign In
Basket 0 Items

BASKET SUMMARY

Bread of Life in Broken Britain: Foodbanks, Faith and Neoliberalism

Charles Roding Pemberton
SCM Press, 2020,195pp, pbk. £19.99

‘Charles Roding Pemberton is a writer and lecturer… and a
begrudging member of the Church of England.’ The candid selfdescription
on the back cover of Bread of Life in Broken Britain
is amply borne out by Pemberton’s challenging analysis of the
exponential increase in foodbanks, especially in Britain and
the United States, alongside the rise of neoliberal politics and
economics – and the way in which these trends are intertwined
with the life and ministry of the Church. Foodbanks have always
been there for emergencies, but the novelty is that they are now
seen as either an integral part of the welfare system (thus letting
politicians off the hook of improving it) or as a ‘lifestyle choice’,
generating their own clientele (same drawback).
Such have been the recent upheavals in our economy that
aspects of Pemberton’s book seem almost nostalgic. Writing in the
days before nurses, teachers and police officers found themselves
obliged to resort to foodbanks, and even to set them up in their
workplaces, in-work poverty merits little more than a passing
reference, as something resulting from precarious, low-skilled jobs.
Sceptical of close ties between religion and state, Pemberton queries
Nigel Biggar’s approval of church support for generally benign and
low-interventionist governments, but notes that Biggar still takes
as a necessity, state funding for ‘youth workers, probation services,
day care facilities, and family centres’ (122): all species on the red
extinction list in the Britain of 2023.
Based on his experience of volunteering in the County Durham
foodbank, interviews with users, and his unashamedly radical
politics, Pemberton rehearses the causes and exhausting effects
of poverty: unemployment, ill health, inadequate and delayed
benefits, lack of community care forcing family carers to give up
work, lack of training blocking progress to better jobs, poor housing homelessness, bad diet, the demeaning process of being ‘a
claimant’, alongside dependence on multiple welfare schemes
and projects; and disillusion with politics. Foodbanks prop up a
failing system of food waste as well as hunger, divide users into
the deserving versus undeserving poor, and distract volunteers
from more effective campaigning. In a nutshell, the only solution
Pemberton sees is a complete rejection of the capitalist global food
system, replacing it with a largely vegetarian diet, home-grown on
land in common ownership, alongside a Citizens Income. Oh, and
disestablishment of the Church of England. (He did say he was a
begrudging member.)
Pemberton presents an engaging overview of a Christian
theology of food, referencing not only table fellowship, hospitality,
Christ as ‘the bread of life’ and the centrality of the Eucharist, but
also the tradition of fasting at times of natural shortage (Advent
and Lent coincide with winter and early spring), and some of the
more extreme practices of the Desert Fathers – such as eating only
herbs, raw vegetables, the Eucharist, or one square meal every three
months. The egalitarian land allocation envisaged in Leviticus and
Deuteronomy, together with the prohibition of selling land for
profit and regulations to care for the poor, embed anti-capitalism
and welfare into the Hebrew Bible (even without mentioning
Jubilee, which Pemberton doesn’t). God’s generous provision
is further demonstrated by Feeding the Five Thousand and the
Wedding at Cana – for which (spoiler alert) Pemberton quotes C
S Lewis’ quirky explanation: as God habitually ‘turns water into
wine’ by providing the ingredients, Cana’s miracle is simply a ‘short
cut’ (74).
Although ‘feeding others is simultaneously the most natural and
supernatural thing a Christian can do because it is not only what
Jesus asks for… but also what Jesus does constantly throughout
creation’ (77), Pemberton aims particular criticism at church-run
foodbanks which extravagantly over-claim the spiritual payback to
volunteers – neatly described as ‘the hunger of the poor facilitating
the holiness of the Christian’. One American project egregiously
asserts: ‘[volunteers] lay down their life for four or five hours for
our guests at each distribution’ (100).
There is the occasional unfortunate trope. Pemberton cites the feminization of labour’ (38) as a cause of unemployment, when in
fact women have always earned money by working: it just hasn’t
always been counted. The Church of England is accused of ‘renting
buildings to arms traders’ (fair enough, if somewhat exaggerated:
Church House London facilities have been hired for manufacturers’
conferences); but ‘holding shares in payday lenders’ (83) is an
inaccurate reference to the unwitting support of Wonga’s UK launch
via a business start-up fund – and in an endnote, if you trouble
to find it, Pemberton admits that this investment is no longer in
the portfolio. Pemberton’s views on Establishment have a topical
ring since the Coronation (which seems to have surprised many
by its religious character), but Establishment’s alleged ‘hobbling’
of criticism against the government hardly stands up to scrutiny in
light of Bishops’ and Archbishops’ interventions on immigration,
refugees, public service cuts, or environmental policy – and as
evidenced by their subsequent vilification in the right-wing press.
Incarnation means living in the real world as well as working to
change it, and the call to live an entirely alternative lifestyle and
devote oneself to campaigning against the status quo is unrealistic
for most. But as we drop a few tins into the foodbank, it does us no
harm to ask ourselves if ‘giving food, money or time… [is] sufficient
to legitimise identifying with the crucified God?’ (100)

Subscribe now for full access or register to continue reading

To continue reading subscribe to gain full access or register to read one article free this month

Subscribe now for full access or register to continue reading

To continue reading subscribe to gain full access or register to read one article free this month