Rise and rise of the foodbank as hungry families are left to struggle on breadline

IT’S lunchtime on a sunny Wednesday in Bradford. In a clean, bright building owned by the Light Church in the city centre, around 20 people are tucking into a bowl of freshly-made vegetable soup. For many this may be the only decent food they’ve had in days.

Among them is “Kirsty” (not her real name), a chatty 23-year-old who’s here for the second time and says that, at a time when she had reached rock bottom and was trying to pick herself up, discovering the Trussell Trust’s foodbank made a huge and dramatic difference to her life.

“Going back to over a year ago, I’d got depressed and lonely and started smoking crack cocaine – at first at weekends with an older woman, a neighbour. But the more I smoked the more I got depressed and needed the drug.

“I started smoking every day and eventually I went and worked the red light district to get the money.

“My little girl, who’s now four, was taken away from me and still lives with my mum while I live in a hostel.”

Kirsty was discovered growing cannabis which she sold to feed her £100-a-day crack habit. She was sent to prison on remand for two weeks and lost her flat. After that she tried to give up the habit on a rehab programme but failed, going back to prostitution again.

“I’d got to the point where I wasn’t eating, I was really thin and didn’t want to get out of bed. I worked all evening until one in the morning, then did the drugs and slept all day. I knew I had to find the willpower to stop smoking it, but it was very difficult alone, as my family and friends had washed their hands of me. I didn’t want my daughter to see the state I was in, either.

“I finally decided I had to get off it, but I had reapplied for benefits and there was a delay in payment. I went on the street again to buy food, not drugs. I met some women on the City Lights big yellow bus that goes round at night helping the homeless and needy. When I said I was on the streets because I had no money to eat they told me about this foodbank.

“I was nervous about coming here, to be honest. I thought they’d judge me, especially because of the drugs and prostitution, but it’s not like that at all. Getting a food parcel meant I didn’t go back on the streets. I was welcomed here by all these people and met Sue, who sat down and listened to what had been happening to me.

“She told me there was another life out there, and suggested things I could think about and places I could go to help myself.

“After that chat I applied for a six-month rehab programme in Rotherham, where my daughter can come and live with me. I’ve also started seeing her regularly, and my family can see I’m really trying to turn things around.”

It sounds far-fetched that a £25 parcel of basic foods like cereal, beans, soup, tinned fish, tomatoes, fruit, vegetables, meat, pasta, tea, coffee and dried milk can make so much difference to a life. But to the tens of thousands who are referred to the country’s hundreds of foodbanks each week it can be the answer to an individual’s or family’s short-term crisis, taking the pressure off until they figure out a more lasting solution. The 215 foodbanks run by the Trussell Trust nationwide (opening at a rate of two a week due to the state of the economy) will give three parcels a year to any one claimant or family. They’re referred and their need assessed by social services, GPs, district nurses and other community agencies such as citizens’ advice bureaux. Foodbanks are not drop-in centres; clients must arrive with a voucher.

John’s crisis came when he was awaiting surgery for a chronic back problem and had to stop work. His marriage had broken up not long before this, so he was living in a rented flat, but unable to work at his call centre job because of the pain of prolapsed discs. He missed a medical assessment and his benefits were suspended. He’d already received three crisis loans from the Department of Work and Pensions while his benefit claim was reassessed, but the process dragged on and he was left with no money to live on.

“It took six weeks to get my benefits through,” says John, who’s 42. “I didn’t know what I was going to do, but the referral here made such a difference. Chatting to Gareth, the manager, and the others distracted me from my troubles, and the food parcel was a life-saver. I mean that. I got two parcels at different times, and came back to ask them more about the charity. I started volunteering at the food bank because I liked the place so much.

“It was the start of things going better for me, and what happened to me showed there’s hope for other people with problems like mine. I did worry about coming in the first place, though, as it hurts your pride to have to ask for food.”

The Trussell Trust foodbank is one of 215 run in the UK by the Christian charity. It says the goal of the foodbanks is to empower communities to combat poverty and exclusion. There are several foodbanks in Bradford, including one run by the council, but Tressell is the largest network of foodbanks in the country.

For the many people who use them there is no other choice when they find themselves in crisis. Whether on low income or unemployed, single, a couple or a family, increasing numbers are finding they can’t afford enough food to get by. Rising food costs, redundancy and benefit changes or delays are among the reasons they are forced to seek help from charity, says manager Gareth Jones.

“We try to offer a lot more than just the food. People are met individually at the door and one of our volunteers will spend a good 40 minutes talking to them about their situation. It’s about signposting them to agencies and things going on in the community that they can access to help themselves. Clients include people who’ve lost their job and a big bill has come in. It can happen to anyone – and suddenly you can’t feed the family. No-one here is judgemental, everyone is welcoming, and we encourage clients relax and talk. They eat with us and they get their parcel.

“Poverty creates isolation and loneliness and people need support not only to see some kind of route they can follow to try and solve the financial problems but also to plug back into their community.”

Like all foodbanks, this one relies on a volunteer workforce way beyond the 24 who staff the bank three days a week. All the food comes from donations – with supermarkets giving good quality items that are close to their “use by” date, companies, churches and other community groups donating and members of the public arriving at the door with bags of groceries. Each parcel provides ten nutritionally balanced meals per person for three days.

At the moment the Bradford foodbank is balancing donations with demand from needy people who walk through the door each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But that demand is growing: 50,000 people in Bradford are reckoned to be living below the poverty line, and in the first year after it opened in late 2010 this particular foodbank helped more than 1,000 – although its target had been set at 400.

“Looking ahead, things aren’t going to get better for the economy any time soon,” says Richard Parsons of the Trussell Trust headquarters in Wiltshire. “So many are struggling on insecure income and the Government does what it can, but the social welfare system is big and slow to respond – although we’re told they will try to reform it. Foodbanks are about helping people today, getting through a crisis – rather than creating dependency – until some longer-term solution to their problem is found.”

For Kirsty it’s not overly dramatic to say that one parcel helped to give her hope again.

“When you’re on drugs you’re surrounded by negative people. Here, everyone is positive.

“I wanted to change but was struggling with it. I came at the right time, and they helped me. It’s definitely not just about the food.”

www.trusselltrust.org.uk

Uncertain times feed demand

AROUND 13 million people live below the poverty line in the UK, and many regularly go hungry for reasons ranging from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income.

Trussell Trust foodbanks provide a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis.

In 2011-12 the trust’s foodbanks fed 128,687 people nationwide, a 100 per cent increase on the previous year.

Rising costs of food and fuel combined with static income, high unemployment and changes to benefits are causing more and more people to need help.

The Trussell Trust partners churches and communities to open new foodbanks, and there are currently around 200.