“On Christmas Day 2011, I sat on my sofa by myself in a freezing cold flat with no television, no presents, no food in the fridge. I was unemployed, broke, and broken. I hadn’t bought a single present for my one-year-old son, and instead let him go to his father’s, knowing I could not give him a Christmas myself.
“This year, I’m lucky that things are different for me. But I know thousands of people will have a hungry Christmas with empty cupboards and no presents. More than 60,000 people, three-times more than last year, will visit a foodbank for free groceries because they can’t afford to feed themselves.
“I was referred to my local foodbank for help by a Sure Start children’s centre, after staff noticed that my son and I always had seconds and thirds of the free lunch they provided.
“This Christmas, my son and I will have food on the table. But thousands won’t. It’s not just the festive season — 350,000 people received three-days emergency food from foodbanks between April and September this year.
“In the words of Desmond Tutu: “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.””
Trussell Trust foodbanks have seen the biggest rise in numbers given emergency food since the charity began in 2000. Almost 350,000 people have received at least three days emergency food from Trussell Trust foodbanks during the last 12 months, nearly 100,000 more than anticipated and close to triple the number helped in 2011-12.
Rising cost of living, static incomes, changes to benefits, underemployment and unemployment have meant increasing numbers of people in the UK have hit a crisis that forces them to go hungry. This dramatic rise in foodbank usage predates last April’s welfare reforms, which could see numbers increase further in 2014.
Our Executive Chairman Chris Mould says:
‘The sheer volume of people who are turning to foodbanks because they can’t afford food is a wake-up call to the nation that we cannot ignore the hunger on our doorstep. Politicians across the political spectrum urgently need to recognise the real extent of UK food poverty and create fresh policies that better address its underlying causes. 2012-13 was much tougher for people than many anticipated. Incomes are being squeezed to breaking point. We’re seeing people from all kinds of backgrounds turning to foodbanks: working people coming in on their lunch-breaks, mums who are going hungry to feed their children, people whose benefits have been delayed, workers on low incomes, and people who are struggling to find enough work. It’s shocking that people are going hungry in 21st century Britain.
Other reasons included domestic violence, sickness, refused crisis loans, debt and unemployment. The majority of people turning to foodbanks were working age families.
Over 15,000 frontline care professionals such as doctors, social workers, schools liaison officers and Jobcentre Plus referred their clients to foodbanks in 2012-13.
Foodbanks are community driven with an estimated 30,000 volunteers giving their time across the UK. Over 3,400 tonnes of food was donated by the public in 2012-13.
You can find out more about The Trussell Trust at www.trusselltrust.org and CARIS Haringey at www.carisharingey.org.uk