Good to see Kate Picket and Richard Wilkinson cited in your article. IMO their book The Spirit Level should be part of the national curriculum. It’s fundamental that there is widespread understanding and appreciation that equality is better for everyone.
I genuinely can’t fathom this logic. Are we really so unashamed about prioritising vehicles over nature? About celebrating a business being “successful” when it largely excludes locals, and when so much of its operating model feels extractive rather than rooted in the community?
I live next door to a very popular pub. Locals don’t drink there, it’s really a restaurant, you need to book. When it’s busy, the road is overrun with badly parked, oversized cars, some fully on the pavement. Last night, a Parish Councillor suggested I cut back my hedge to help accommodate the cars.
Well that made me giggle. It really is as ridiculous as you tell it. Bonkers.
This article was shared with me, accompanied by the message
“Read this article and thought it might act as a source of inspiration.
Keep going”
It did inspire as did the kindness of the sender.
www.digest.madfeed.co/p/the-restau...
A charity is gaining momentum pushing for state-subsidised diners to be reintroduced across the UK to improve access to affordable, healthy, and climate-friendly food.
Not everyone is convinced, however, that there's a chance in the current political climate.
My latest for Sower ⬇️
Please get in touch if you'd like to see the deck we've built for how public restaurants can be embedded into our infrastructure.
This is not an idea for a new restaurant chain. It's a movement built on an urgent need for repairing the social connections that many of us feel today.
The opportunity is here. The need is clear. Now is the time to focus on tangible ideas that help us rediscover what we have in common.
This is about more than food, it's about rethinking what's possible when our systems are designed to be distributive, that includes; the governance, the finance, the purpose, the ownership and the networks - @doughnuteconomics.bsky.social.
How would it work?
We've developed a local partnership model where everyone benefits because the ideas that endure are the ones where we all win.
👍 Public restaurants don't need to be soup kitchens
👍 They don't need to rely on surplus food
👍 They an be commercially viable and professional run.
Imagine this:
🌮 Nutritious, price-capped meals, no more expensive than fast food.
🍽️ A small, regularly changing menu, supply led.
👫 Welcoming spaces to meet our community where everybody feels included.
In a world that pushes us apart online, shared meals bring us back in the same room, where understanding and connection can begin. Public restaurants offer a commercially viable, low-cost, high-impact way to address some of our greatest challenges, all starting with improving our social networks.
If we've normalised the idea of public leisure centres, why not apply the same model to public restaurants. I believe dining together could be the most powerful public health intervention of our time. A 🧵
Dropping my son @uwebristolofficial.bsky.social today and spotted this in the toilets. Today of all days it felt so important and the words I valued most were “play your part”. Because it’s the most important lesson any of us can learn.
Please visit the link to know more about The Canteen Culture Coalition. score.future-foundations.co.uk/canteencultu...
Yes, it might need subsidy to start. But the endgame can be self-sustaining: a network that literally feeds itself.
We all know things need to change.
We’re just unsure where to start.
I say, let's start with a meal.
We need to build the market first - a dining model so joyful that people want to be part of it.
We can’t expect farmers to switch practices, or restaurateurs to reinvent their models, if there’s no clear signal that people will show up.
🧑🍳 Local livelihoods
Imagine a network of restaurants with shared resources, designed without profit extraction, enabling chefs and entrepreneurs to focus on what they do well, instead of survival.
💬 Loneliness
So many of us are missing our “middle ring” networks, those casual, everyday relationships that foster belonging. Social dining is an opportunity for us to rebuild those.
🍽️ Food-related health
Education alone isn’t solving our nutrition crisis. We need more abundant, joyful access to healthy meals and the community around them.
So what is social dining the answer to?
🍲 Community resilience
During WW2, institutional dining kept the country going. In times of future crisis, we could once again turn to public meals as social infrastructure.
We have a rich and vibrant restaurant culture in the UK. But:
Many venues are struggling to survive.
Many people simply can’t afford to participate.
Eating with others should not be a luxury.
The @jrf-uk.bsky.social actually includes occasional meals out in their Minimum Income Standard.
All I heard at the @foodpolicycitysg.bsky.social food symposium confirmed what I’ve long believed; 👉 All roads lead to social dining. Perhaps it's the "revolution" Thomasina Miers called for in her brilliant keynote. For 20 years I've been thinking about how we unlock the power of a shared meal 🧵
Breakfast, lunch and dinner used to be more social, thanks to the public canteens that fed the nation. Should we bring them back?
Breaking the consumption myth.
A call to reclaim our food system is louder when it comes from a leader with influence.
In this really thoughtful piece, Stefanos Fotiou speaks plainly - access to good food isn’t just about policy, it’s about fairness.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/achiev...
💬 Here’s why the middle ring matters:
It fosters tolerance. Close relationships teach love. Online tribes reinforce loyalty. It’s our communities that teach us how to coexist with people who think differently.
Social dining is where the middle ring can thrive.
📱 Smartphones aren’t just changing us, they’re reshaping society. We’ve strengthened our closest relationships (family, best friends) and distant online communities (tribes), but in doing so, we’ve neglected the “middle ring”, our neighbours, colleagues, and wider community.
🍽️ The rise of eating alone is a symptom of something bigger. Restaurants, once vibrant social spaces, are now pickup points for sofa diners.
🏙️ Public canteens can help reverse this trend, presenting regular opportunities for interactions.
Our modern economy, with its take-away culture, is turning many of us into agoraphobes. But what if we could be nudged in the opposite direction, toward more connection and community? A brilliant article in @theatlantic.com points to the need for investment in public spaces. My reflections, a 🧵
