Meet the speaker - Dominic Watters, food poverty campaigner

Canterbury dad to ring the bells to farmers about food poverty

Food poverty campaigner looking forward to shining a light on hand-to-mouth existence at famous farming conference

Single dad Dominic Watters lives in Canterbury, one of Britain’s most beautiful and historic cities. The surrounding fields of Kent, often called the Garden of England, are famous for fresh produce. Apples and cherries, berries and beans, asparagus and oysters, whitebait and samphire, cobnuts and marsh lamb. Then, of course, there is the long tradition of hop growing and beer brewing going back to Tudor times.

“My high-rise council flat on the outskirts of Canterbury is in a food desert in this so-called Garden of England,” says Dominic, who is known on social media as Single Dad SW.

Dominic has accepted an invitation to speak at the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) - which next takes place between January 8^th to 10^th 2025 - and says he is looking forward to telling farmers and agricultural industry leaders all about the difficulties his council estate community has in accessing fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.

“I’m sure that farmers will be interested to hear what it’s like raising a child in poverty and food insecurity - where all that’s available is the lowest quality of processed food,” says Dominic.

“Online trolls sometimes say I should be growing my own food if I’m so worried about fresh produce. I already do this, with tomatoes and herbs, but in the real world on a small council flat balcony you can’t grow enough to actually feed a family.

“I very much want to explain to the farmers at the Oxford Farming Conference that we don’t have access to even the most basic fresh food like potatoes or chicken. Larger supermarkets do cheaper things like wonky veg, but we don’t even have that in our one food shop. It’s all the lowest quality of processed food, such as tinned hotdogs and white bread. Also, there have been times when I just haven’t had the money in the meter to be able to turn the oven on to cook properly - so I can understand how people end up using micro meals.”

Dominic says he was emboldened to speak out during the covid pandemic when famous footballer Marcus Rashford raised awareness of child hunger in the UK.

“Shame and the snobbery of others had made me keep quiet about using food banks, but it was such a blessing when Marcus Rashford spoke up about children going hungry and I wanted to try and help change attitudes and raise awareness.”

Being hit by a car while crossing the road and placed in an induced coma for six weeks meant Dominic didn’t get to take his GCSE examinations, but that hasn’t stopped him from founding the Food is Care community interest company and writing a book collating the pandemic observations of social workers, Social Distance in Social Work: COVID Capsule One and appearing on television programmes such as BBC Newsnight and Sky News, as well as giving evidence in the House of Lords to the Food & Drink Select Committee.

Statistics, such as his neighbours on the council estate having a lower life expectancy than those living in more affluent districts of the city, are a key driver for Dominic. He is also determined to explain that ‘food poverty’ and ‘food insecurity’ are not the same things.

“Food insecurity is the living experience of food poverty, which in itself has an impact on a person’s whole wellbeing and ability to engage in society. It can make someone unable to function, let alone flourish,” says Dominic.

“With farmers having a passion for the food they produce I think they’ll be shocked and interested to learn about the people where I live, where your entire world is the estate and the opportunities to leave it just aren’t there.

“There will be a great many children who don’t know milk comes from a cow or how bread is made. Their lack of access to fresh food is a national disgrace and it’s hard not to wonder whether we live in a system that’s designed to keep us in our place - silenced and dying ten or more years earlier than people who have access to fresh food.”

In the face of this depravation, Dominic remains committed to bringing about change, adding: “I hope that they (policymakers) start seeing real sustainable change to the system can only take place if voices of those in food poverty are included in discussions and the OFC platform can be a vehicle to achieve this.”

The OFC always takes place in Oxford in the first week of January, offering a vibrant programme of speakers, panel and politics sessions as well as networking. A registered charity, it attracts over 650 delegates every year, including many people from the wider food chain, retail, NGOs, scientific organisations, media, policy-making bodies and governments from around the world. To book your ticket, click here