Episode 5: The Hungry Gap

Throughout history, people across the Borders would have expected to go hungry at this time of year. The time between March and May was known as the hungry gap, when larders were emptied after the winter, and the garden and farm hadn't yet started producing. This period of scarcity was part of the seasonal cycle, forcing people to rely on an essential and common knowledge of wild foods to keep themselves going. 

Nowadays, the average supermarket creates a convincing illusion of limitless abundance all year round, encouraging us to waste food and imagine that hunger is a thing of the past.

But right now 1 in 6 people across Scotland are experiencing food insecurity, and many more of us may experience food shortages as extreme weather and high fuel costs become more regular. We need to consider how we address hunger, and how we can learn to treat food as the precious resource that it is.

I speak with Reverend Philip Blackledge from the Galashiels Food Bank, and Amy White and Amanda Robinson of Cafe Recharge, which redirects surplus food to feed people from their pay-what-you-can cafe, and hear some hopeful and inspiring stories about how we can learn to feed everyone into the future.

 

Thank you to:

• Rev. Philip Blackledge of Holy Trinity Church in Melrose, who works with the Galashiels Foodbank
• Amy White and Amanda Robinson of Cafe Recharge in Galashiels.

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

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This podcast was founded by the Borders Good Food Partnership with support from the Scottish Borders Council and the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network.

 

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