We Wish You A Merry...Food Bank

By?Cat Wildman?

Food glorious food! Christmas and food go together. According to the British Dietetic Association, the average person will consume 6,000 calories on Christmas day (the equivalent of 11 McDonald's Big Macs) and gain up to half a stone over the Christmas period. To many people Christmas is about trying not overindulge around the ever-present food.

Christmas adverts invariably feature family dining tables laden with food - and each time I see them I think of the 4.3 million UK kids currently living below the poverty line. Are they watching those ads, wondering what they’re going to get for Christmas Dinner??

Food banks in the Trussell Trust, Britain’s largest food bank network, distributed over 2.1 million food parcels in 2021-22 and it’s estimated that over 2 Million people in the UK will have used a food bank by the end of 2022.? Their research also found that one in five people referred to its 1,300 food bank centres were from households where someone worked. They also reported that 145,000 families had used its food banks for the first time in recent months - an increase of 40%.

Examples of people in in-work poverty referred to Trussell Trust food banks in recent months include trainee nurses, teaching assistants, factory workers, retail assistants, delivery drivers and hospitality workers.

Sadly the number of food bank users are growing steadily year on year. Take a look at the graph below showing the number of people receiving three days' worth of emergency food by Trussell Trust foodbanks in the United Kingdom from 2008/09 to 2021/22:

Source: Statista

Last year saw the end of the ￡20/week uplift to universal credit which saw demand rise at nearly 70% of food banks, In May 2022, the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) reported that 93% of food banks across 94 UK local authorities had seen an increase or significant increase in the need for their services since the start of 2022.?The recent rises in household energy bills coupled with the rising cost of…what feels like literally everything…will only make matters worse.?

Food banks rely on the generosity of everyday people - a whopping 90% of the distributed food is donated by the public. The main fear this Christmas is that food banks may run out of food, due to the donating public feeling the pinch, leading to fewer donations. The surge in demand coupled with lower supply is being flagged as “completely unsustainable“ by Food Bank organisations across Britain and 82% of food banks have already reported being impacted by supply issues since July 2022 with nearly 1 in 4 already needing to reduce the size of their food parcels.?

Incredible organisations like Feeding Britain have created Affordable Food Clubs, “social supermarkets” and pantries, food buses and larders in communities where the need is greatest. They offer nutritious food and other essentials for much less than retail value, enabling people on low incomes to stretch their budgets further and helping to prevent financial crises which bring the need for food banks into play.

Affordable Food Clubs also provide support like benefits and debt advice and credit and savings facilities – to address the wider issues that members may be facing. They also offer social activities such as communal growing, cooked meals, and holiday clubs for children and families.?

To date, Feeding Britain has established, developed, and supported 179 Affordable Food Clubs saving an estimated 30,000 households hundreds of thousands of pounds each month on their shopping.?

Food banks need to become a thing of the past by fighting poverty at its root cause; supporting organisations to provide secure, steady employment and pay a fair living wage. We need benefits that meet the cost of living, better social housing and more funding for education; a fairer society will benefit us all.?

However nobody is coming to implement this before Christmas so it’s up to us to save each other for now, and the UK’s current food bank crisis is one instance in which immediate charity is needed as an emergency measure, immediately.?

What organisations can do:?

• Consider organising an organisation-wide drive to collect weekly food bank donations from employees. Be mindful that you are not pressuring employees who may themselves be living in working poverty.?
• Support your local food bank as an organisation, find out what they need most, and donate it. Items most often needed tend to be staples like cereal, soup, pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes/ pasta sauce, lentils, beans and pulses, tinned meat & tinned vegetables.
• Support Feeding Britain financially as an organisation to provide more Affordable Food Clubs to ease the pressure on food banks.?
• Hold fun organisation-wide activities to raise money for organisations like the Trussell Trust and Feeding Britain.?
• Implement payroll giving so that your employees can opt to donate to food bank and food poverty organisations directly from their salary before tax.?

What individuals can do:?

• Donate a few more items to the food bank collection box in your local supermarket each time you shop.?
• Find and support your local food bank, find out what they need most, and ask if your organisation can supply it or arrange a drive within your neighbourhood, local schools, clubs or your office to collect and deliver it.?
• Arrange a Christmas Bake Off or similar fun activity to raise money for organisations like the Trussell Trust and Feeding Britain.?
• Find out if your organisation supports payroll giving and opt to donate to food bank and food poverty organisations directly from your salary.?
• Support the Trussell Trust by shopping pre-loved on Ebay or Depop.?

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