Church prepares for food shortage post-Brexit

The Cardinal’s Lenten Appeal this year will focus on food poverty and sustainability, The Tablet can reveal, writes Liz Dodd.

Speaking after the launch of a new Caritas Westminster project to promote sustainable business in Wembley, north London, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said that social need could increase “significantly” in the 12 months that follow Brexit.

As a result, he said, Caritas Westminster is developing a systematic approach around how it will respond to issues such as food poverty. “We can develop food banks, that’s part of the answer, but we also want food sustainability. Food the equivalent of 250 million meals is thrown away each year in this country. So it’s addressing both sides: working poverty and its impact on what people eat, and poor use of the food that is around,” the cardinal said. Gisele Henriques, adviser on food sustainability at Cafod, explained: “We produce more food per person than ever before, yet a third is wasted – something Pope Francis compared to ‘stealing from the table of the poor’.”

A spokeswoman for the diocese confirmed that this year the appeal will raise funds to build on work taking place in parishes and schools around food poverty.

The cardinal, speaking on the evening that MPs voted against a proposal to delay Brexit in order to prevent the UK leaving without a deal, said many Catholics were distressed by the deep uncertainty around Brexit. “In London we have high numbers of parishioners who come from European countries and their anxiety is tangible,” he said. He welcomed the government’s decision to drop the registration fee for Europeans applying for settled status.