Hundreds of food parcels handed out across Shropshire in last year
Hundreds of food parcels have been handed out across Shropshire by council officials in less than a year, new figures have revealed.
Since April, Shropshire Council's benefits team has provided 650 food parcels at a cost of almost £5,000.
There are currently 11 foodbanks running in the Shropshire Council area. Details have been revealed in a written response to a question by Councillor Chris Mellings ahead of Thursday's full council meeting.
Councillor Malcolm Price, the portfolio holder for strategic planning, housing and commissioning (central), said in response to the question: "Since April 2013, we have provided 650 food parcels at a total cost of £4,978.47.
"The benefits team is just one of a number of services that refer to food banks, so the figures above are not a true reflection of the whole food provision within Shropshire.
"We have recently initiated a project to co-ordinate the provision of food to avoid overlap and address root causes."
There are two foodbanks in operation in Shrewsbury. Others are in operation in Bridgnorth, Clun, Craven Arms, Ellesmere, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Oswestry, Church Stretton and Whitchurch.
No-one from Telford & Wrekin Council was available for comment today on its food parcel figures.
Lee Evans, a spokesman for Powys County Council, said the authority did not operate a food parcel scheme but had made a one-off payment of £15,000 to support food banks last year.
It comes after 26 Anglican bishops wrote a letter condemning the Government's "punitive" welfare reforms earlier this week.
The Anglican bishops wrote:
"We often hear talk of hard choices. Surely few can be harder than that faced by the tens of thousands of older people who must 'heat or eat' each winter, harder than those faced by families whose wages have stayed flat while food prices have gone up 30 per cent in just five years."
