Food Banks
I was interested in the recent spate of stories about the increase in food banks across the UK and the news that one charity handed out over 900,000 food parcels in 2013 - up from 350,000 the year before.
Now in many ways I think that's a good thing, rather than 'shocking' as some papers reported the news, because much of the increase must be the result of supermarkets, for example, donating surplus food supplies to a good cause - instead of just throwing things away and dumping them into a skip.
The Scottish Government and the Lottery Fund have both donated £1million to food banks recently and while organisations like The Trussell Trust describe themselves as Christian they seem to be doing a good job, like many charities they seem in touch with the issues on the ground.
But what I'd like to know is more about the kind of people who turn to food banks for help because that's the only way to turn the situation around in the longer-term - by identifying people's underlying problems whether they might be such as unemployment, addiction, debt, money management.
Because food banks can only ever be a 'sticking plaster' of a solution unless people are suggesting that organisations like The Trussell Trust and FairShare should elbow out of the way other local government or national government agencies.
Which might be a way forward come to think of it - taking service provision out of the hands of giant bureaucracies which don't often have a great track record of looking after the most vulnerable people in local communities.
Food Banks (9 January 2014)
In some ways, the behaviour that's required is similar to a crowd of very partisan football fans who are not really interested in the beautiful game and will stoop to anything in order to win - including foul play and downright cheating.
We went hungry in world's seventh-richest nation - it has to stop
Mirror guest columnist Jack Monroe on going hungry and not even being able to give her son a Christmas present
I had this thought when I read the following piece from the Mirror newspaper before Xmas by a guest columnist, Jack Monroe, the same Jack Monroe, I presume, who writes a food blog for the Guardian.
In which case Jack also 'starred' in a recent Labour Party political broadcast - that required Jack to read from a script while pretending to be a real person.
So, I was immediately suspicious about what Jack had to say in the Mirror, for example the claim that she had to survive on only £10 a week for food which I find hard to believe.
The other thing I find hard to believe is that Jack's father appeared to be on the scene and to be doing better than Jack at the time, the way I read her story anyway, so exactly what was the father of this child doing to support his son?
I think I'll volunteer to do some work with a food bank in 2014 because I am interested to know how people get into the situation where they rely upon food banks - or is part of the answer that giant supermarkets are just much better at finding a good use for products that were simply dumped in years gone by.
For example, I would like to know if people are working or relying solely on benefits? - if they work, what kind of jobs do they do? - if benefits are their only source of income, how long has they relied on benefits? - do people have drug or alcohol problems and are they seeking treatment? - do they have children and do both parents support the children?
The answers to all of these question don't necessarily affect what happens in the short-term, of course, because when people need help they need it in the here and now, not in a month or six months time.
But the bigger picture, the longer-term do matter if people are ever going to change their lives and circumstances. Do they know how to cook, for example? Which is a great practical skill that everyone should have, if you ask me, especially anyone living on a tight budget.
For example, I would like to know if people are working or relying solely on benefits? - if they work, what kind of jobs do they do? - if benefits are their only source of income, how long has they relied on benefits? - do people have drug or alcohol problems and are they seeking treatment? - do they have children and do both parents support the children?
The answers to all of these question don't necessarily affect what happens in the short-term, of course, because when people need help they need it in the here and now, not in a month or six months time.
But the bigger picture, the longer-term do matter if people are ever going to change their lives and circumstances. Do they know how to cook, for example? Which is a great practical skill that everyone should have, if you ask me, especially anyone living on a tight budget.
But what I do know is that the comic book coverage of the Mirror helps no one - and I for one don't believe that a parent has no choice but to drag a little toddler around in the rain, soaking wet and sobbing allegedly, as opposed to finding a responsible person (his dad, for example) to look after him for the day.
We went hungry in world's seventh-richest nation - it has to stop
Mirror guest columnist Jack Monroe on going hungry and not even being able to give her son a Christmas present
Tough: Single parent Jack survives on £10 a week for food
Carl Fox
On Christmas Day 2011, I remember how I sat on my sofa by myself, willing the day to pass as quickly as possible.
I was alone in a freezing cold flat with no television, no presents and no food in the fridge – it had been turned off at the mains. I had no tree, no decorations, nothing to mark the day as different.
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 for the day, knowing I could not give him a Christmas myself.
This year, I’m lucky that things are different for me. But I am outraged that 60,000 other people are facing the same situation.
How can it be that 20,000 children face Christmas 2013 with empty cupboards and no presents?
And why is that figure three times the number that faced a hungry Christmas last year?
I don’t think this is acceptable in the seventh richest country in the world – and I’d really like to know the reasons why it’s happening so we can stop it.
That’s why today I’m launching a petition via Change.org calling for Parliament to debate the causes of UK hunger – and to ask why, in modern Britain, food-bank use is escalating so rapidly. I’m backing the Daily Mirror and the union Unite’s Give Our Kids A Christmas appeal for the Trussell Trust.
The campaign is raising money for food banks – but the petition is just as important if we want to stop people going hungry. We have to do more than feed people – we need get to the root of hunger.
I can remember what it was like to turn off the fridge because it was empty anyway. To unscrew the light bulbs to reduce the temptation to turn them on. To walk everywhere in the pouring rain in your only pair of shoes, with a soaking wet and sobbing toddler trailing along behind you, as you go into every pub and every shop within walking distance and ask them if there are any vacancies.
I can remember dragging myself home to not quite dry out in my freezing cold flat and sitting in my coat and hat until it was time for me to go to bed.
There are other memories too. Pouring a carton of chopped tomatoes over a handful of pasta – and trying not to throw it at the wall in frustration as your young son tells you: “I don’t want it Mummy, I want something else.”
But there isn’t anything else until you get to the food bank in two days’ time.
I spent countless mornings sitting across the breakfast table from my son, envious of his small portion of cereal mashed with a little bit of water or his slice of toast with jam.
“Where’s Mummy’s breakfast?” he asked. Mummy wasn’t hungry. Mummy wasn’t hungry last night either and you wonder how long it will take him to notice that Mummy isn’t very hungry at all any more.
My little family spent two Christmases hungry. I didn’t tell anyone – I was afraid I would lose my son to social services if I admitted how we were living. I had given up a good job working for the fire service because I couldn’t make the childcare hours fit with being a single parent and I’d applied for hundreds of jobs since.
I had sold almost everything I owned and was still desperately searching for work, struggling to feed us both on the little that was left after paying the rent and bills.
It took me 18 months to find work and to be able to feed myself and my son three meals a day again.
I was referred to my local food bank by a Sure Start children’s centre that I attended with my son on a Wednesday, after staff noticed that we always had seconds and thirds of the free lunch. I was reluctant to go at first, reluctant to admit that I had hit rock bottom – but I couldn’t afford not to. So one morning in October 2012, I finally went.
Some people might think that anyone can turn up to a food bank, but the reality is that you need to be identified as being in need by a social worker, health visitor, childcare provider, your doctor. Someone needs to recognise that without their intervention, your family is going to go hungry.
A lot of people don’t go, because of the shame and because – I’ll tell you from experience – it feels like begging. No matter how kind the volunteers, how discreet the carrier bags, you have to look someone in the face who knows you are desperate and not coping and that your life is falling apart.
But going there was a positive thing. The food bank wasn’t just a box of food – they signposted me to other agencies that could help me, they listened to me and talked through the frustration and desperation of being a single parent struggling to provide for my child.
This Christmas, my son and I will have food on the table. But 60,000 others won’t. It’s not just the festive season – 350,000 people received three days’ worth of emergency food from food banks between April and September this year. Yet supposedly the economy is recovering, and banker’s bonuses are back?
Please join me, the Trussell Trust, the Daily Mirror and Unite by signing this petition calling for a Parliamentary debate. Make politicians confront what is happening. We need to stop turning a blind eye.
In the words of Archbishop 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.”
Sign our petition at change.org/food banks and tweet about it using the hashtag #jackspetition.
Party Propaganda (20 November 2013)
But one thing I do know is that Jack Monroe is not in the position of having to turn the heating off or unscrewing their light bulbs - so why would she or the Labour Party paint a picture which is simply not true.
Carl Fox
On Christmas Day 2011, I remember how I sat on my sofa by myself, willing the day to pass as quickly as possible.
I was alone in a freezing cold flat with no television, no presents and no food in the fridge – it had been turned off at the mains. I had no tree, no decorations, nothing to mark the day as different.
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 for the day, knowing I could not give him a Christmas myself.
This year, I’m lucky that things are different for me. But I am outraged that 60,000 other people are facing the same situation.
How can it be that 20,000 children face Christmas 2013 with empty cupboards and no presents?
And why is that figure three times the number that faced a hungry Christmas last year?
I don’t think this is acceptable in the seventh richest country in the world – and I’d really like to know the reasons why it’s happening so we can stop it.
That’s why today I’m launching a petition via Change.org calling for Parliament to debate the causes of UK hunger – and to ask why, in modern Britain, food-bank use is escalating so rapidly. I’m backing the Daily Mirror and the union Unite’s Give Our Kids A Christmas appeal for the Trussell Trust.
The campaign is raising money for food banks – but the petition is just as important if we want to stop people going hungry. We have to do more than feed people – we need get to the root of hunger.
I can remember what it was like to turn off the fridge because it was empty anyway. To unscrew the light bulbs to reduce the temptation to turn them on. To walk everywhere in the pouring rain in your only pair of shoes, with a soaking wet and sobbing toddler trailing along behind you, as you go into every pub and every shop within walking distance and ask them if there are any vacancies.
I can remember dragging myself home to not quite dry out in my freezing cold flat and sitting in my coat and hat until it was time for me to go to bed.
There are other memories too. Pouring a carton of chopped tomatoes over a handful of pasta – and trying not to throw it at the wall in frustration as your young son tells you: “I don’t want it Mummy, I want something else.”
But there isn’t anything else until you get to the food bank in two days’ time.
I spent countless mornings sitting across the breakfast table from my son, envious of his small portion of cereal mashed with a little bit of water or his slice of toast with jam.
“Where’s Mummy’s breakfast?” he asked. Mummy wasn’t hungry. Mummy wasn’t hungry last night either and you wonder how long it will take him to notice that Mummy isn’t very hungry at all any more.
My little family spent two Christmases hungry. I didn’t tell anyone – I was afraid I would lose my son to social services if I admitted how we were living. I had given up a good job working for the fire service because I couldn’t make the childcare hours fit with being a single parent and I’d applied for hundreds of jobs since.
I had sold almost everything I owned and was still desperately searching for work, struggling to feed us both on the little that was left after paying the rent and bills.
It took me 18 months to find work and to be able to feed myself and my son three meals a day again.
I was referred to my local food bank by a Sure Start children’s centre that I attended with my son on a Wednesday, after staff noticed that we always had seconds and thirds of the free lunch. I was reluctant to go at first, reluctant to admit that I had hit rock bottom – but I couldn’t afford not to. So one morning in October 2012, I finally went.
Some people might think that anyone can turn up to a food bank, but the reality is that you need to be identified as being in need by a social worker, health visitor, childcare provider, your doctor. Someone needs to recognise that without their intervention, your family is going to go hungry.
A lot of people don’t go, because of the shame and because – I’ll tell you from experience – it feels like begging. No matter how kind the volunteers, how discreet the carrier bags, you have to look someone in the face who knows you are desperate and not coping and that your life is falling apart.
But going there was a positive thing. The food bank wasn’t just a box of food – they signposted me to other agencies that could help me, they listened to me and talked through the frustration and desperation of being a single parent struggling to provide for my child.
This Christmas, my son and I will have food on the table. But 60,000 others won’t. It’s not just the festive season – 350,000 people received three days’ worth of emergency food from food banks between April and September this year. Yet supposedly the economy is recovering, and banker’s bonuses are back?
Please join me, the Trussell Trust, the Daily Mirror and Unite by signing this petition calling for a Parliamentary debate. Make politicians confront what is happening. We need to stop turning a blind eye.
In the words of Archbishop 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.”
Sign our petition at change.org/food banks and tweet about it using the hashtag #jackspetition.
Party Propaganda (20 November 2013)
I didn't catch the Labour Party political broadcast which was shown on TV recently - but I read lots about it afterwards because it caused a bit of a storm with interviews of people allegedly struggling to meet their energy bills.
Apparently, two of the interviewees who featured prominently in the broadcast were not struggling at all - one being a chap called Beresford Casey who lives in a prosperous part of London (Primrose Hill) and owns a chain of fashionable and not inexpensive burger bars with the fancy title Hache Burger Connoisseur.
The other person who was propelled into this five minutes of fame was a young woman named Jack Monroe who is not on breadline Britain either - and writes a food blog for the Guardian newspaper.
Apparently, two of the interviewees who featured prominently in the broadcast were not struggling at all - one being a chap called Beresford Casey who lives in a prosperous part of London (Primrose Hill) and owns a chain of fashionable and not inexpensive burger bars with the fancy title Hache Burger Connoisseur.
The other person who was propelled into this five minutes of fame was a young woman named Jack Monroe who is not on breadline Britain either - and writes a food blog for the Guardian newspaper.
In the Labour Party broadcast Jack paints a grim picture of life in Britain today as she tells the camera:
"Hot water and a comfortable living environment are things that you should be providing for your child.
"Hot water and a comfortable living environment are things that you should be providing for your child.
You know in your head it's not normal to put your child in a fleecy babygro and a jumper to go to bed, or to go to bed at 6 or 7 o'clock in the evening because you've got nothing else to do, nothing to entertain yourself with and the flat is cold and dark.
They're making huge profits for their shareholders but people are turning off their heating and unscrewing their light bulbs."
Now I don't know how many people might be living in such desperate circumstances, but I would be interested in learning more about their situation - whether they are in work, for example, or on benefits - or whether they are in some particular difficulty.
So, instead of making me think it has the whiff of a cynical sales pitch - perhaps in the same vein as giving an everyday hamburger the rather overblown title of Hache Burger Connoisseur.
