LAST WEEK, Bakers and Allied Food Workers Union (BFAWU) delegates gathered in Stone for our annual conference, a hugely significant conference for us as we celebrate our 175th anniversary this year.

It was an honour for me to take part in my first in-person conference as general secretary — a privilege which had been delayed by the impact of the pandemic.

As a union, we took the bold decision to change how our conference ran, to ensure that delegates left the week inspired and armed with ideas and resources to support members in their workplaces, raise issues, challenge management and engage with national campaigns as we grow our union.

The cost-of-living crisis, pay and industrial issues were at the top of the agenda, but so too was the recurring theme of mental health and wellbeing.

It’s perhaps not a great surprise that our members are seeing the toll being taken from wages cut in real terms, fuel and energy costs rocketing, terms and conditions being attacked, the slashing of welfare payments and public services being cut to the bone.

All of these have been accompanied by the pressure that the pandemic has put on people the length and breadth of the country.

Our conference heard from bakery, shop and food production workers who have experienced the debilitating impact of crushing anxiety and depression.

We heard from women — and men — about the impact of menopause on their working and home lives.

And we heard from delegates who have lost family members, workmates, friends and neighbours through suicide and even some who have themselves contemplated suicide.

A number of our members who are “mental health first-aiders” in their workplaces spoke of how they’ve been an invaluable point of contact for colleagues who have not known where to turn to — and we even had some first-time speakers at conference who felt compelled to speak on motions concerning mental health.

So powerful were the contributions, that one delegate who spoke of their own struggles in the first motion on mental health returned to the podium in a later debate to thank fellow union members for their response in the minutes and hours following their initial contribution.

For us as a union, the physical and mental wellbeing of our members is central to our campaigns and organising.

Indeed, research we conducted with our members on their experiences of being key workers during lockdown highlighted the pressures they were dealing with and “mental health concerns” is one of the top four responses when asked what the hardest thing for them personally had been about working on-site during the pandemic.

Since the start of the year, we have been piloting our new and innovative People Powered Communities project, where we have partnered with organisations including Greater Manchester Law Centre which offered free legal advice and support and promoted their Zero Hours Justice Campaign, which informs people about their rights on zero-hours contracts — both of these issues can be huge drivers of poor mental wellbeing.

We’ve also been working with the Ron Todd Foundation which has been distributing “mental health packs” from our street stall.

Similarly, our campaign on the need to enshrine the right to food in law recently resulted in a symposium at Birkbeck University where we were joined by academics, health experts, anti-poverty activists and trade unionists (the right to food is a campaign that we as a union will continue to champion and we believe that it should be a central demand in the upcoming TUC demo on June 18).

The link between hunger and poor mental wellbeing is clear — people experiencing food insecurity are more likely to report depression and anxiety.

Early life experiences of hunger can have scarring effects many years later, with child hunger associated with suicidal ideation and poor mental health in the teenage years.

As we all prepare to see further rises in fuel costs, energy prices and general living expenses, we know that we will also see more people’s mental health suffer.

Our union is now even more inspired by our members’ contributions at our conference in the need to build a resistance which wins the changes needed so desperately by so many both in the food sector and across society.

Sarah Woolley is general secretary of the BFAWU — Twitter: @sarahwoolley01.