About us
What is the Resistence Kitchen?
Resistance Kitchen is a community kitchen sharing hot meals, fresh fruit & vegetables, and home cooking essentials with those in need in our local community of Norbury and Thornton Heath, in South London. We operate a food stall near Norbury Railway station every Saturday where all are welcome, no referrals, no questions asked.
We also campaign for social justice as we believe food banks are not a solution, systemic change is needed to alleviate poverty.
Why Resistance Kitchen?
The Facts
1 in 3 children in our borough lives in poverty. Croydon North, where our kitchen is located, is the worst hit with 36.5% of its children suffering under poverty. Most of those children - over two thirds - are in families with jobs, wages are so low that they are still in poverty!
Hunger is not a logistics problem of getting food to people in need; it’s a result of poverty caused by deliberate government policy. It’s a human rights issue, and the solution has to be systemic change so that people can afford to feed themselves.
United Nations: UK in violation of Human Rights
The United Nations expert on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Professor Alston lead a fact finding mission to the UK in 2018. He concluded in his report that “The experience of the United Kingdom, especially since 2010, underscores the conclusion that poverty is a political choice. Austerity could easily have spared the poor, if the political will had existed to do so. Resources were available to the Treasury at the last budget that could have transformed the situation of millions of people living in poverty, but the political choice was made to fund tax cuts for the wealthy instead.”
The right to Food is a basic human right that the UK, as a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is legally obligated to ensure for all its citizens with dignity. Professor Alston has described the UK’s “anti-poor policies” as violating the human rights of its citizens. These include the plundering of the welfare system to pay for tax cuts for the rich; of refusing to raise minimum wage in line with inflation when food prices rise unabated at 4x the rate of wages; of punishing poor families if they have more than 2 children by cutting their benefits – a policy that has led to the abortion of wanted babies; and of unleashing predatory profiteers to hike energy and food prices at the fastest rate in 45 years, raking in record profits.
Systemic Racism
We are blessed with a diverse population in South London, but within that, due to systemic racism, black and Asian children are disproportionately affected by poverty. Black and Asian children are 2.3x more likely living in poverty than white children. In 2023 the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child denounced the UK for “the overrepresentation” of Black, Asian, Muslim, Roma, Gypsy and Traveller children living in poverty, and urged the government to “implement targeted policies and programmes to combat racist and xenophobic activities”.
Resistance Kitchen
Resistance Kitchen is our humble way of resisting, by sharing our little with our community whilst at the same time campaigning for social justice through education. Charity cannot replace justice. It’s shameful that food banks have to exist in the 5th richest country, our existence is an indictment of the state’s failure.
As an Islamic organisation, we are driven by the Islamic imperative to stand for justice, whilst working to alleviate poverty in our community.
