arts and design

Massive Attack's 3D raises £106,000 for Bristol food banks with art print fire sale

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Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja (AKA 3D) has called for more government support to be given to those in food poverty after a fundraising drive in his home town of Bristol raised more than £100,000 to help feed frontline workers and at-risk groups.

Del Naja supported Bristol Food Union – a collective of restaurants, food businesses and community organisations that are distributing food in the city – by producing a Feed the Frontline screenprint, which was sold for 10 days, with all proceeds going to support BFU.

An ad for the Bristol Food Union’s #feedthefrontline fundraising campaign.



An ad for the Bristol Food Union’s #feedthefrontline fundraising campaign.

The online “fire sale” raised roughly £160,000 before deductions, with more than 1,000 “PROTECTION” screenprints sold. Del Naja hopes the project can raise awareness about food poverty and the vulnerability of the food supply chain.

“We all have a slightly superficial understanding of food vulnerability, and local supplies are always competing with the bigger supermarkets and franchises,” he said. “In an emergency situation these things are more acute.”

Del Naja, who was a prominent graffiti artist before co-founding the band Massive Attack, called for sustained government support as the Covid-19 lockdown continues. “I’m very aware that public charity contributions are not a solution to this problem,” he said.

“If we’re talking blue-sky solutions, I’d love to see the introduction of universal basic income, so that everyone can afford to eat and put money back into this consumer society we’re all part of.”

Both the Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest food-bank network, and Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan) have reported record numbers of demand for their services. In late March, the Trussell Trust issued 50,000 food parcels in a single week, which is almost double its usual volume, while Ifan recorded a 59% increase in demand for emergency food support between February and March.

The full impact of the coronavirus outbreak on food bank use is yet to be established, but in November 2019 the Trussell Trust reported that it had distributed a record 823,145 food parcels between April and September, a 23% increase on the same period in 2018.

Del Naja also called for more local authority support for projects like the Bristol Food Union, countering criticism that they create dependency. “In an emergency situation,” he said, “people need to be fed and looked after. I can’t buy that argument at the best of times.”

In late 2019, Del Naja and Massive Attack pledged to work with the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre to map the carbon footprint of tours in a bid to understand how touring contributed to the climate emergency.

In an article for the Guardian, Del Naja said the research could be used as a “roadmap to decarbonisation” and would be shared with other touring acts, promoters, festival organisers and venue owners to “assist swift and significant emissions reductions”.

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