Food banks: the other side of a merry Christmas
Christmas is the worst time of the year to go hungry. The Trussell Trust is trying to combat festive food poverty by collecting and delivering hampers, as Trust worker Molly Hodson explains.
Christmas dinner donations
“This is the silver lining,” a mother told us last Christmas when we gave her a food bank hamper filled with festive food donated by people like you. Faced with losing everything, it was a much-needed glimmer of hope for a struggling mother and her son.
Another one of our festive food parcels went to Hannah, a mother who'd had a stroke earlier in 2012 and had to leave her job. She used to donate to the food bank, but her family was facing eviction and urgently needed our help. She was so relieved when we delivered her hamper and said: “It's like you saved our lives”.
For 60,000 people in the UK, including 20,000 children, Christmas dinner wouldn’t be an option this year without the help of a food bank. Soaring bills and static incomes are seeing increasing numbers of families facing a crisis where they can’t afford to put food on the table. And it’s especially hard to go hungry at Christmas.
It’s getting worse
The Trussell Trust, which runs more than 400 UK food banks, provides emergency food and a festive food parcel for up to 60,000 people in the two weeks over Christmas alone. And sadly, the problem of food poverty won’t stop at Christmas. Over the past two years there has been an exponential growth in the number of people helped by food banks in the UK. Since April, over 500,000 people have received three days’ emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks alone.
Food banks are a local, and currently essential, response to hunger in the community. Non-perishable food is donated by local people through schools, businesses, churches and by individuals at supermarket collections. The food is sorted by volunteers and distributed to people in crisis who have been referred to the food bank by professionals such as doctors and social workers. But food banks aren’t just about food. For many, the emotional support and the chance to be listened to is vital. Trussell Trust food banks also signpost clients to other agencies able to help resolve the underlying cause of the crisis. It’s about giving people a hand-up as well as a hand-out.
Skipping meals for the kids
Britain is the seventh richest country in the world, but recent research commissioned by Tesco revealed that over the past year one in four British people have been so stretched financially that they have skipped meals, gone hungry to feed their loved ones, or relied on family or friends to provide food.
For these households, the festive season can be the hardest time of all. One case study from last year was sisters Jasmine, 11, and Jade, 14. Both knew what it was like to have nothing at Christmas.
“Everyone in my class was talking about the presents they’d have and all the chocolates and roast potatoes they were going to eat,” Jasmine said.
But when her dad lost his job as a lorry driver and his new job didn’t pay enough to cover the bills, Jasmine and her sister knew that they’d be lucky to have food at Christmas, let alone presents.
Mum and dad told their daughters that they’d eat after Jasmine and Jade had gone to bed; but the reality was that the parents were skipping meals to make sure there was enough for the children.
When The Trussell Trust delivered a festive food hamper on Christmas Eve last year, Jasmine and Jade’s mum burst into tears on the doorstep. She said that without it they’d have eaten beans on toast. Jade and Jasmine said that the food bank saved their Christmas, and this year they’ve been volunteering to help make sure that children like them have a happier Christmas too.
Jasmine and Jade’s parents aren’t alone in going hungry to feed their children: one in five UK mothers regularly skips meals to feed their children in the UK today. And 13 million people live below the poverty line.
How you can help
The problem of UK hunger is one that must not be ignored. Recently, food writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe launched a petition calling for ‘rising foodbank use’ to be debated in Parliament. It got over 130,000 signatures in just one week and food bank use will now be debated in Parliament on December 18. We all need to work together to help stop UK hunger, so please join us in 2014 by donating what you can. Thank you!
What donations buy
£3 could buy a Christmas pudding for a family in crisis
£5 delivers a food parcel to a rural family
£10 could buy a turkey crown
£25 could buy a festive food parcel
Here’s how to give:
ONLINE: Go to http://www.trusselltrust.org/donate
TEXT: Send FBUK13 £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10 to 70070 e.g: Text “ FBUK13 £5” to 70070
PHONE: by debit or credit card by calling 01722 580208 weekdays between 9.30 am & 5pm
CHEQUE: Please send cheques, made payable to The Trussell Trust, to: The Trussell Trust, Unit 10, Ashfield Trading Estate, Salisbury SP2 7HL.
The £3 challenge
To raise money for The Trussell Trust, Buyagift has launched the ‘£3 challenge’ – a competition which asks people to prepare a delicious meal for two without exceeding an extremely tight budget of just £3.
Buyagift have uploaded the entries to their Facebook album and the winner of the challenge receives a £600 gift voucher, a meal for two at a posh restaurant, a relaxing spa day, and a gourmet cookery lesson. Plus they’re donating a further £600 to the Trussell Trust.
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