Why is a food charity tackling digital exclusion?

Some of you may be asking, why is TBBT – a charity that runs mobile affordable food clubs – interested in tackling digital exclusion?

Our core ambition is to help give people a step up out of poverty and accessing affordable food is just the start. On average our members save ￡25 a week on their food budget by shopping with us. Money that they can then use elsewhere for other household priorities.

But what good is that ￡25 if it’s being eaten away by other poverty premiums?

We spend a lot of time in our communities. We’re there week in, week out. We listen to our members – through conversations, through feedback, through surveys – and we learn about the issues that create barriers for their long-term prosperity.

The issues that our members face are complex – meshing financial, social and cultural challenges – so solutions need to be thoughtful, rounded and multi-layered. They also need to be local and take place in the communities they’re supporting. So we find and develop partnerships that bring in external expertise to work with our members on a 1-2-1 basis, sharing bespoke advice and practical solutions to further chip away at the costs of poverty.

And digital exclusion is very costly. Policy in Practice put the figure at ￡19bn of unclaimed benefits and support every year. But it’s not just a financial cost. Digital exclusion limits opportunities for jobs, education and training, compounds social isolation and impacts on health and wellbeing.

As the world becomes more digitally connected and everything moves online, our communities get left further and further behind.?

The Consumer Digital Index (CDI) measures the nation’s digital capabilities and confidence. Our latest member survey shows just how far behind they are.

For example, 39% of TBBT members are unable to undertake the 8 Foundation Level skills measured in the CDI. That’s compared to 19% of the UK population as a whole.

Almost a third of our members can only get online through their mobile phones. Their skill level drops dramatically – over half are unable to undertake the 8 Foundation Level skills.?

So it’s little wonder that they can’t take advantage of all that the internet and online provision has to offer.

And that’s before we even talk about cost. 77% of our members tell us that the costs of getting online are a significant barrier, yet two thirds had no idea that social tariffs exist.

So we’re focused on supporting our members and enabling them to become more active in the digital world through our Connecting with Confidence partnership with Lloyds Banking Group and We Are Group . People like Cait, whose family lives abroad so she had to use a neighbour’s phone to FaceTime them. Or Eva, whose 16-year-son was struggling to do his GCSE homework just on a phone. Or Gemma who was so worried about being scammed that she wouldn’t shop online. Or Frank who felt completely left behind since retiring, with an obsolete desktop and a landline.

Our role as the catalyst between our communities and partners – like the yeast in the baking of bread – puts TBBT in a unique position to create meaningful and lasting change for individual members and our communities more widely. And it only starts with food…

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