Hunger in Britain

This video is called Britain’s Hidden Hungry (full episode).

By Paul Donovan in Britain:

Britain’s going hungry

Thursday 18 July 2013

“I won’t take what I don’t eat,” says Dave, seemingly putting back as much as had been loaded into three carrier bags for him to take away from the Eastbourne food bank.

A former soldier, Dave has hit hard times. He’s unemployed and has lost his partner.

He has had alcohol problems since leaving the army 10 years ago. This is the second time he has been to the food bank to receive his three days of food supplies.

“I’ll only take what I’m going to use, I feel guilty handing it back,” he says with slight embarrassment.

On another chair in the reception area is Maki, who has come for the first time accompanied by one of his three children.

He has had his benefits stopped.

“The benefits office sent me here with a voucher,” says Maki, who was previously a driver before an injury made driving impossible.

He is waiting for an operation in hospital. “The food I get here will keep us going till Friday,” he says.

Maki and Dave are just two of the 10,800 people who have visited the Eastbourne food bank since it opened in June 2011. Demand is growing with 730 people coming for food last month – 439 adults, 259 children.

Prior to becoming project director Howard Wardle was a trustee on a debt counselling project.

He is also a local pastor.

“People were getting into debt but couldn’t buy food – the church couldn’t just buy food, it was untenable, so we put feelers out as to whether people thought a food bank would be useful in Eastbourne.”

There was a positive response.

He explains how first the food bank operated from a portakabin. Then the local United Reformed Church offered some premises.

Initially he thought the building too big but now it is packed out with different foods, particularly soup, pasta and beans.

Part of the Trussell Trust network, Eastbourne was the first town to open a food bank in south-east England.

At the time it became the 99th food bank to open in Britain. Now there are over 325 food banks across the country with three new ones opening each week.

The number of people using them has risen from 2,814 in 2005/6, when the Trussell Trust began, to 346,992 for 2012/13.

The Eastbourne food bank opens from Tuesday to Friday every week between 10am and midday. Some 75 different volunteers, mainly from local churches and supportive organisations, come in to help out.

On Tuesday each week the food comes in. Two people are on the van going round the town collecting the food. The food is weighed and recorded when it comes in.

The recipient in Eastbourne first enters the reception area, where there are comfortable armchairs.

There is a rota of three or four people on the welcoming part of the food bank every day. “They are trained how to empathise with people and make them feel at ease,” says Wardle.

“People often come to us quite frightened and confused. Sometimes all people want to do is talk about what is going on.”

Upstairs is the office which compiles statistics, deals with vouchers and keeps a record of what is going on. Jan comes in one day a week to send out thanks to those who have supported the work.

The idea is to provide three days of food. The packages are made up of cereal, juice, milk powder, tea or coffee, pasta, pasta sauce, soup, beans, tomatoes, vegetables, meat, fruit, rice pudding, sugar, sponge pudding, biscuits, fish and instant mash.

There may also be extras such as snacks, sauces and chocolate.

People don’t just arrive randomly at the food bank but have to be referred with a voucher.

Care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, social workers, Citizens Advice Bureaus and many other agencies identify people in crisis and issue them with a voucher. Over 100 agencies in Eastbourne hold food vouchers.

There is a limit of four vouchers per person but the food bank organisers continue to provide food if they see a need.

“A lot of people come two or three times and we never see them again,” says Wardle, who explains that the food bank also employs an advocate, Rupert Calkett, who can put people in touch with other services.

The food bank looks out for anyone coming in who may be playing the system but Wardle estimates that there have been less than five such individuals over the two years.

“The principle of the food bank is the community helping the community,” Wardle holds. He tells how they distributed 5.5 tons of food in June alone.

The top reason that people come to the food bank is delays in benefits. This accounted for 263 cases in June. The next cause is no income, then benefit changes and finally debt.

“In Eastbourne you can wait up to 20 weeks to change benefits or get onto benefits. That’s a long time. The food we supply for three days doesn’t touch the edges.”

It’s a very difficult environment, with little work around.

“Ninety-nine point nine per cent of those coming here want work but it is not there.”

Ironically, Wardle adds, many people who have been helped by the food bank want to come back to volunteer – only to endanger their benefits by doing so.

“People looking for work can be deemed to not be looking hard enough and sanctioned,” he explains.

Volunteering to help can come into this category.

People can be quick to judge. Wardle recalls one couple who looked far too prosperous for the food bank.

“He was a sales manager who had not been paid for a few months. They got behind with the mortgage. They sought advice and were told to hand the keys in and walk away from the house.

“The council then said they had made themselves voluntarily homeless.

“The next day the company the man worked for shut down. They were left sleeping on friends’ couches. He then got a break, getting a job with Comet, but then it went bust.”

The case shows how easy it is to fall into poverty.

Another woman was self-employed.

The business went bust, so she and her partner were taking it in turns to eat – two days eating, two days not. She came and took home some food parcels. With support she then got a job.

Erroll Smith came to the food bank for support. He later came back as a volunteer. “It made me feel part of the world, it’s a two-way process. I first came a year ago. It really helped, things got sorted and benefits got sorted.”

Wardle would like to put himself out of work but does not see food banks going away any time soon.

“Three-thousand five hundred children go to bed hungry every night in Eastbourne.”

He sees more problems when universal credit is rolled out, with people receiving one payment to deal with all their needs.

It is a scandal that in the fifth-largest economy in the world increasing numbers of people are using food banks. What does seem for sure is that in Tory Britain, food banks are a phenomenon that is here to stay.

For more information or to make contact see: www.eastbourne.foodbank.org.uk.

Read Paul Donovan’s blog at www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.com.

Related articles

• Food banks need help all year, not just at Christmas (globalnews.ca)
• Feed thy neighbour: Charting the journey of a food-bank donation (independent.co.uk)
• Demand soars at Birmingham food bank as families struggle to eat (24dash.com)
• “When is a food bank referral not a food bank referral? When it’s from the DWP.” (agirlcalledjack.com)
• Demand for food banks triples ‘because of benefit delays or changes’ (standard.co.uk)
• Local Food Banks Prepare For Upcoming School Year (wctv.tv)
• Benefit cuts sends number of food bank users soaring (independent.co.uk)
• Homeless and penniless – the food bank users with nowhere else to turn (guardian.co.uk)