Jack Monroe
Pro-Chancellor, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
As a committed writer; journalist; and campaigner to help alleviate food poverty, Jack Monroe has, in her efforts to keep her family going on as little as £10 per week, inspired thousands of others struggling on low income. It is only right that her commitment is honoured today and we welcome her to Coventry to recognise her efforts with an honorary doctorate of arts.
Jack Monroe found international recognition as the face of food poverty and as a voice to offer support, advice and comfort for families whose circumstances leave them struggling financially.
Born in Southend on Sea in 1988 as one of four children, her father served in the fire service and army for over 30 years and campaigned for stable income for foster carers. Her mother worked as a nurse and foster carer. Jack later attended Westcliff High School for Girls before finding various forms of work, and eventually a position as a call handler for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.
It was after the birth of her son that she was unable to commit to inflexible shift patterns alongside motherhood and gave up the role. Jack spent the next 18 months on benefits and looking for work, struggling with continued financial hardship and the threat of poverty she often went to bed hungry and was left offering all of her belongings for sale to raise some income.
Jack went on to blog, Tweet and Instagrammed herself into a successful career as a cook and poverty campaigner. She rose to fame with blog, A Girl Called Jack which documented her struggle to feed her young son as well as sharing recipes to survive on a food budget of £10 a week. By sharing recipes and tips, Jack amassed a huge following of 16,000 readers. Her recipes went on to be handed out by foodbanks to help people manage on very little income.
Her jump to influence in the mainstream media came when she invited a Daily Telegraph food writer for lunch – a 24p-per-portion chickpea tagine – inspiring an article on her methods and tips. Within a year, Jack had a Guardian column, was a face of Sainsbury’s supermarket campaign on food waste and affordable living, and appeared on a Question Time debate.
Jack has written several budget recipe books, and blogged for the Huffington Post and the New Yorker. Her blog, renamed in 2015 to Cooking on a Bootstrap continues to inspire and advice struggling families. She has also struggled with mental illness and gender issues throughout her life.
She remains a fierce campaigner on food poverty issues, particularly hunger relief working with a number of charitable organisations concerned with poverty and hunger, including Unite, The Trussell Trust, Child Poverty Action Group and Oxfam. In 2013 she was ranked number 19 in the Independent’s ‘Rainbow list’ of influential LGBT people in the UK.
Her work was recognized with the Judge’s Choice award at the Fortnum And Mason Food and Drink Awards in 2013; Best Food Blog at the Observer Food Monthly Awards in 2014, Women of the Year DFS Enterprise Award in 2014 and a Women of the Future Award in the media category in 2015.
Jack, who lives with her son in London, eventually found a job as a trainee reporter on the Southend Echo, and is now a regular commentator in the media. She has since become a patron of the Food Chain a charity set up to ensure people living with HIV in London can access the nutrition they need to get well, stay well and lead healthy, independent lives
In recognition of her outstanding contribution to helping to alleviate food poverty, and outstanding service to humanity, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Degree of Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, on Jack Monroe.