Downing St: Poor don’t need food banks to help them eat
This article reports on a debate during Prime Minister’s Questions over claims that the welfare system has been cut too far to cope with demand, leading many hard pressed families to turn to foodbanks because they cannot afford to eat. For those unfamiliar with the operation of Food Banks, schools, churches, businesses and individuals donate non-perishable, in-date food which is then sorted and stored. Care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, social workers, CAB and police identify people in crisis and issue them with a foodbank voucher. People then bring their voucher to a foodbank centre where it can be redeemed for three days emergency food.
Of particular interest for RSN members, some foodbanks also run a rural delivery service, which takes emergency food boxes to clients living in rural areas who cannot afford to get to their nearest foodbank. What is clear is that how foodbanks are now a feature in most towns – including Mr Cameron’s Witney constituency (the Prime Minister has said he will visit it “very shortly”) and provide the kind of support you may have thought had been consigned to the past. A staggering 45,000 children have been fed through foodbanks in the last 12 months. No one chooses to go hungry and foodbanks are providing a valuable lifeline.