Food banks deliver message to Downing Street calling for urgent action
The action is being led by Salisbury's Trussell Trust
A Salisbury-based food charity has joined charities alike in delivering a letter to Downing Street, urging Liz Truss to act to end the need for emergency food.
Signed by over 3,000 food bank staff and volunteers from across the country, the letter was handed in by representatives from Salisbury's Trussell Trust, IFAN UK - Independent Food Aid Network and Feeding Britain charities, who stress that food banks "cannot and should not be a long-term solution to hunger".
It comes as new data from The Food Foundation published today (18 October) shows nearly one in five low-income families have experienced food insecurity in September, and hunger levels have more than doubled since January.
Separate research by The Trussell Trust found that millions of people in receipt of Universal Credit experienced severe financial hardship this summer due to the rising cost of living. In it, two in five (40%) said they've needed to skip meals to keep up with other essential living costs, while 21% have been unable to cook hot food because they couldn’t afford to use the oven or other utilities.
Steph Maxwell, a Trussell Trust Food Bank Coordinator, said:
“The impact of the cost of living crisis is being most keenly felt by people on the lowest incomes, forced to live from day to day, never having sufficient funds to bulk buy or take advantage of discounts. It costs more to be poor. As well as skipping meals, not switching the heating on, not buying school uniforms to replace outgrown ones, many families have no option but to turn to a charity to make ends meet.
“It cannot be right that the poorest people in our society are being pushed deeper into poverty because of an inadequate social security system that does not reflect the true cost of living.
“Our food bank continues to be busier year on year, and unless benefits are kept in line with the true cost of living, we anticipate a sharp increase over the coming months. I hope Liz Truss will show some compassion and ensure that the benefits system is sufficient for people to buy their essentials and to live with dignity."
The message delivered to Number 10, also calls on the Government to ensure that social security reflects the true cost of living and increases with inflation.
It's being supported by 3,902 people who have written to their MP, calling on them to go further to help people on the lowest incomes in their community.
Sabine Goodwin, Coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN UK), says the situation is desperate:
"People who used to donate to food banks are now actually having to access food banks. People who used to volunteer at food banks are having to no longer do that because they need to earn more money and take on more work in order to cope themselves with the cost of living crisis.
"I think as time goes on it's becoming more and more obvious how desperate the situation is, and people in communities across the UK are deeply concerned and we know that it's not a problem that is unusual anymore.
"Food bank teams and volunteers can't be put in a position of having to reduce the size of the provision they distribute or having to contemplate turning people away. The only answer is to really address the fundamental root cause of this problem, which is poverty."