The pan amnesty

“If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.”

The words of the late Pete Seeger, on an album released in 2008 and even more relevant today than they were then.

Were he still with us, no doubt Pete Seeger, a life long environmental activist, would be at the forefront of the environmental campaigns across the globe today.

His words may sound harsh, but they are what we all need to hear.  And the order is important – recycling is a headline hitting concept, but it should never be the first resort.

We should be looking to reduce our consumption of non renewable, unsustainable materials such as single use plastics.  We do not use any single use plastics and only one silicon washer on the lids of our cookware. And we are looking for alternatives for even that component. Our packaging is all paper based and can be re-used, recycled or composted.

Our pans are seasoned with natural flax oil, so they can be re-seasoned and restored again and again.  In fact, they longer you use them the better they get.  And we sell all the spares you need to make repairing them a simple process.  Do try not to burn the handles, but it’s not the end of the pan, or the end of the world, if you do.

And so we come to rebuilding and re-using.  We would love more people to own Netherton cookware, to use it daily, to cherish it, to hand it on to the next generation.  And we recognise that the reason many people do not buy new pans is that they “already have more pans than we need”. 

So we have come up with a plan. 

But first a few words about food banks – we are filled with admiration for the staff and volunteers who run food banks around the country, but we are unhappy with the necessity for them in 21^st century Britain.

It is over 75 years since the Attlee government basically enacted every recommendation made by eccentric patrician liberal reformer Sir William Beveridge, who exceeded his simple brief – to survey the country’s social insurance programmes – with a wide range of suggestions aimed at eradicating what he called the five “giant evils”: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.

Whatever Attlee thought of him, Beveridge was no socialist. He thought taking the burden of healthcare and pension costs away from corporations and individuals and giving them to the government would increase the competitiveness of British industry while producing healthier, wealthier, more motivated and more productive workers keen to buy British goods.

Yet here we are, the fifth biggest economy in the world and the evil of want is blighting the lives of thousands of people.

And we cannot blame it on the evil of idleness either – in 2017/2018 over 28% of referrals to food banks were for low income households, ie people in paid employment, who couldn’t afford to put food on the table.

“I hope the foodbank closes

The reasons that drive people to a foodbank are really complex. Essentially, it tends to be because of low-pay work and issues with the benefits system. We’ve already seen in Lambeth, which we are on the border of, Universal Credit rolled out as a full service in December last year. In the last six months we’ve seen the use of the foodbank rise by 150 per cent. Maybe not all of that is a direct result of Universal Credit but the numbers have gone up massively.

I don’t think foodbanks should be part of our norm. I hope the foodbank closes because we have a benefits system that supports vulnerable people when they need it.”

Rebekah Gibson is manager of Oasis Centre Waterloo foodbank

  

We cannot solve the problem of people not having enough to eat on our own, nor can you.  But we can all do our bit. 

The issues are vast and complex; people may not have the means to cook food, they may not be able to afford to turn the cooker on; they may not have the knowledge and skills to turn their donated food into an appealing meal; they may not have the basic equipment, have you ever tried to open a can of soup without a tin opener?

And this where the #panamnesty plan comes in.

Bring us your old pan and we will restore it to as close to new as possible and pass it on to a food bank, who can give it a new home.

In exchange, we will give you a discount on a new Netherton pan, that you can use and use and eventually hand on the next generation.

  

 “Food banks should not exist – not a single one – in an economically developed nation seven decades after the construction of a welfare state.  “

Agreed, but as long as they do …………….then we should all do whatever we can to support them, from the donation of a single can of beans to a full week’s shop, to volunteering and helping out, campaigning and sourcing new supplies or taking part in the #panamnesty