In the shadow of Cadbury’s: an everyday story of the collapsing moral economy

George Cadbury was one of the greatest civic entrepreneurs in the world. Not only did he build the British Empire’s biggest chocolate firm, he literally changed the way we live. Down in Bournville, he lovingly designed not only his ‘factory in the garden’ but a beautiful community of elegant homes where rich and poor lived side by side. And today we’re going door to door collecting food for Cotteridge B30 foodbank.

As a devout Quaker, George would have approved. As a social reformer he frankly would have been horrified that this was how good people had to spend their Saturday mornings in the 21st century.

Over the last six months, we’ve found lots of different ways of collecting food for our #OperationCompassion.

• There’s the Hodge Hill model; distribute lots of food crates to churches, mosques and schools. Drive out and pick them up when full.
• There’s the ‘Harborne model’; set up a table with some tea and stickers outside a busy supermarket.
• And there’s the Selly Oak model. Deliver the leaflets door by door a few days before. And then go knocking for collections.

David Barker has us organised. He’s done the leg work. And on a very blustery March morning he’s assembled a massive team. He says more members come out for this than for voter ID. People like to do good.

I meet a few people I know on the doors. We raised our family round here. I bump into a few mums I used to see on the school gate. All of us have kids now plotting their way out of the family home. Onto their next stage in life.

As we go round, I talk to Fred Grindrod about poverty here and Liz Clements tells me about the challenge of getting Mondelez to live up to the Cadbury tradition. The American giant bought out Cadbury’s in an infamous takeover bid a few years ago, and ever since they’ve kept the business going, invested in R&D and new products – but frankly, the firm’s sense of its contribution to the health and welfare of the city’s life isn’t what it used to be.

We raise over a third of a tonne of food in just two hours. Good people care. But why are people so poor that they need foodbanks?

It didn’t used to be like this. In fact, Cadbury’s was world famous as a symbol of the ‘moral economy’ recognised by the King no less. On Wednesday 21st May 1919, on a day of glorious weather, King George V and Queen Mary spent a day in Birmingham, and in the afternoon came to honour Bournville.

Bournville was world famous. One Australian paper said it was as important to Britain as the dreadnought. After the horror of war, the King held up Bournville as an example of how good people can come together to live together in harmony. An end to the conflict between classes, he said.

In a way the society here in this corner of our city is still true to that spirit. We raise over a third of a tonne of food in just two hours. Good people care. But why are people so poor that they need foodbanks? One big reason is the sheer scale of poverty pay in our region. One in four workers earn less than the Living Wage of £9/ hour. That’s 571,000 workers.

George Cadbury and his brother Richard helped pioneer the welfare state in Bournville. But Mondelez won’t – or hasn’t – accredited as a Living Wage Employer.

Altruism and the kindness of strangers seems strong here. Our foodbank collection is testament to that. But the moral economy, pioneered by the Cadbury’s? It’s on the ropes.