Demand soars for food banks in Shropshire

The Trussell Trust said a record number of packages were handed out nationally.

Benefits which are insufficient to cover living costs and payment delays for Universal Credit were among the reasons given.

Between April 2018 and March 2019, the charity handed out 6,000 emergency three-day food packages at food banks in Shropshire – 38 per cent of them to children.

The total was a 27 per cent increase on the previous year, when 4,713 were distributed.

The trust has food banks in Oswestry, Market Drayton, and Wem, along with one across the border in Welshpool.

Across the West Midlands, more than 142,000 emergency food supplies were handed out last year – a 19 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

The Trussell Trust said that, across the UK, almost half of food bank referrals made due to a delay in benefits being paid were linked to Universal Credit.

It said the Government should end the five-week wait for a first Universal Credit payment to help reduce reliance on food banks.

Liz Jermy, project manager at Oswestry food bank, said the majority of people using the service were on low incomes, or struggling waiting for Universal Credit.

Protect

In total, the charity distributed more than 1.5 million food packages in 2018-19 across 1,200 sites in the UK – 19 per cent more than the year before, and a 73 per cent increase on five years previously.

More than half a million packages last year were for children.

The Trussell Trust’s chief executive, Emma Revie, said: “What we are seeing year upon year is more and more people struggling to eat because they simply cannot afford food. This is not right.

"Our benefits system is supposed to protect us all from being swept into poverty. Universal Credit should be part of the solution but currently the five-week wait is leaving many without enough money to cover the basics.

"As a priority, we're urging the Government to end the wait for Universal Credit to ease the pressure on thousands of households.

"Ultimately, it's unacceptable that anyone should have to use a food bank in the first place.

"No charity can replace the dignity of having financial security. That's why, in the long term, we're urging the Government to ensure benefit payments reflect the true cost of living and work is secure, paying the real living wage, to help ensure we are all anchored from poverty.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman rejected claims that people are waiting five weeks for Universal Credit payments.

He said: "It is not true to say that people need to wait five weeks for their first payment. Universal Credit is available to claimants on day one.

"It also cannot be claimed that Universal Credit is driving the overall use of food banks or that benefit changes and delays are driving growth.

"The Trust's own analysis shows a substantial fall in the share of parcels being issued due to benefit payment delays.

"The best route out of poverty is to help people into sustainable employment which, with record employment, we are doing.”

Food bank manager: 'We are a charity that would love to stop'

The rise in food bank use has been seen first hand at one of the county’s centres, where more that 2,700 people have needed help in the last year.

Liz Jermy is project manager at Oswestry and Borders Food Bank, which is part of the Trussell Trust, and was set up back in 2011.

She explained that over the past few years there had been a “huge” increase in the number of people asking for help, with 2,787 people visiting over the past financial year – 944 of whom were children.

It comes as the Trussell Trust revealed a big rise in the number of people needing emergency three-day food packages at food banks in the county, with the number hitting 6,000, up from 4,713 in the previous year.

Liz said that the service was seeing more and more people coming through the doors on a weekly basis.

She said: “It is absolutely increasing. We are seeing an increasing number of clients each time we are open.

Needed

“Whereas two years ago we had eight or 10 people coming through the door, we are now seeing those numbers in the high teens.”

She added: “We are a charity that would love to stop. We would love to close and say we are not needed in society any more.”

She explained that the food bank was not only providing things for people to eat, it was about helping people on low incomes or having trouble with benefits who are having to make choices about buying food or paying for heating.

She said: “There are people who are having to take decisions about going food shopping or paying for oil to go in the tank.

“We are providing the food so they can fix the tyre on their car. They are people that are not in food poverty but are having to make choices about what they can spend their money on.”

She added: “We have been known to buy school shoes, put fuel in cars, keep people mobile, enabling people to get to the meetings or places they need to get to.”

There are 51 volunteers working at the food bank in total and Liz said that they were even providing advice on tackling debts.

She said their debt advisor had received 21 referrals this year on debts ranging from £2,000 to £72,000.

Liz said that people often felt reluctant to approach the service over fear about the stigma, but that once they make contact they understood that there was no judgment over access to help.

Bravery

She said: “Coming through the door you need a level of bravery, to come in and say “help me”. Once they come through that door they realise they are completely valued as a person and that it could happen to anyone.”

The development of the charity now sees it linked in with a number of other organisations, to make sure that the people who need help, know where they can get it.

Liz said: “We work with 52 referring agencies. All our medical centres, GPs practices, health visitors, the charities that work with army leavers, prison leavers, the education teams, the mental health teams, they all refer in to us.

“We work with a huge amount of agencies who then refer people into us and then say “can you help this person”.”

Liz said there were some good aspects to come out of the need for the service, but that it is still sad that food banks are required.

She said: “It is very positive in the fact the giving community has been so generous and we want to say a massive thank you to the giving community. They listen, take notice, bring us things clients are going to need. That is astonishing. It is wonderful and makes you realise there are many people out there who want to help people.

“The sad thing is we have a need for the food bank, that we have not got a situation where our most vulnerable are not looked after adequately without us here.”

Food bank needs a helping hand

A food bank in South Shropshire says it desperately needs a helping hand after running out of funds to top up its grocery parcels.

The Craven Arms food bank saw a rise in people asking for help just before the Easter holidays as parents worried about how to feed their families without school dinners helping during the day.

It said benefit problems also contributed to more food parcels being issued.

Now the project has found itself without money to buy food to top up that donated by the public.

Other food banks in the area say they have had an unprecedented rise in requests for help.

Between January and March, Ludlow Food Bank gave out 117 parcels to people in need.

Craven Arms food bank is based at St Andrews Community Church in the town.

As well as giving out food from the church to eligible people with food vouchers on Tuesday mornings from 10am to noon, it also works with the social services team at the Gateway, Craven Arms, which delivers parcels in the community.

One of the organisers, Julia Gell, said volunteers had to buy certain staple goods from the food bank budget to add to the groceries that were donated.

“On Tuesday I did a shop and we have now run out of money,” she said.

Appreciate

“Our church will underwrite what we need but we would appreciate help from the community.

“We are not a big food bank and, with the help of two local credit unions here, people are able to manage their money. We had a run on vouchers before Easter as we did before the Christmas holidays.

“They included a large family that was struggling with mistakes over their benefits.”

Mrs Gell said the food bank would welcome donations both of money and food.

Donations can be handed in at St Andrews.

“We can not accept fresh food or food that is out of date,” Mrs Gell said.

“The most useful food donations include tinned meat and fish, tinned vegetables and fruit, custard and rice pudding.”