Spotlight on Food & Solidarity

Food & Solidarity is a grassroots, volunteer-led organization meeting urgent material needs while building collective power in Newcastle and beyond.

Born from a COVID-era mutual aid group, they have grown into a 300-person member-governed organization rooted in solidarity, survival, and systemic change.

In one of the most deprived areas of the UK, Food & Solidarity is fighting on multiple fronts—distributing food weekly, organizing around housing and eviction resistance, and campaigning for policy shifts on issues like child poverty and energy justice. Their work isn’t charity, it’s mutual aid, direct action, and deep relational organizing, built by and for those most impacted.

Their membership reflects this reality; many are refugees, asylum seekers, queer and trans people, disabled or neurodivergent, sex workers, or navigating homelessness and criminalization. Their structure ensures that all members, regardless of experience or background, can contribute, lead, and help shape the organization’s direction.

“Many of us carry both trauma and the day-to-day stresses of trying to survive in a hostile world. We need non-blameful spaces to talk about this together and build techniques for managing it, so it doesn’t lead to conflict or burnout.”

Food & Solidarity isn’t afraid to grapple with the complexities of this work. There’s physical, emotional, and relational labor happening all the time—some visible, much of it not. Navigating these dynamics without replicating harm requires skills and language that most of us are never taught.

That’s part of what drew Food & Solidarity to the Lumos program: The chance to explore what collective care and trauma-informed organizing can look like in practice. They’re excited to build shared language around stress and trauma, not as a diagnostic tool, but as a way to make better decisions together—on the picket line, in members meetings, and everywhere in between.

They see capacity building as a form of mental health mutual aid. Not a luxury, but a necessity; not just for individuals, but for the collective. Strengthening capacity, preventing burnout, and deepening a culture of mutual respect and relational resilience.

We’re honored to stand with Food & Solidarity as they show what it means to resist, reimagine, and rebuild together.