Thanks to OnTheWight reader Karen Gallant for sharing an article published by The Guardian yesterday.
The article focuses on the rise of foodbanks across the South East of England and picks up on research carried out by Samir Jeraj, on behalf of our Green MEP, Keith Taylor.
Shocking rise in demand
The statistics are shocking, in the South East alone the number of people receiving emergency food aid has risen from 1,000 in 2006 to 45,000 in 2012 with an anticipated rise of 70% this year.
Those having to call on foodbanks for help are not just the unemployed or pensioners. Clients include working families, unable to make their salaries stretch far enough, or staff on zero hour contracts not allocated enough hours to earn a living wage.
IW CAB asked to ration vouchers
The Isle of Wight foodbank – and the difficulties it faces locally – is cited in the article,
In the Isle of Wight, the local food bank asked referring agencies to restrict the number of vouchers it gave out because it could not get enough donated food to meet demand for food parcels.
According to Lee Hodgson, the manager of the local Citizen’s Advice Bureau, his staff now have to ration the vouchers by deciding which of its hungry and penniless clients are “most deserving” of charity help. He says:,
“How do you make that choice? I don’t think anybody should be in that position. That’s how bad it’s got.
Karen tells us that she’s written to MP Andrew Turner to ask what his Conservative party will be doing to help the situation and will let us know what response she receives.
Image: paris_corrupted under CC BY 2.0
