UK Food banks at Christmas: ‘They’re thinking about having enough food, not celebrating’

Olivia Barber 

Yesterday

Left Foot Forward


A food bank manager and research and policy director at Trussell Trust speak to Left Foot Forward about food bank use at Christmas.

“There is something particularly bleak about people not being able to meet their daily living expenses, at a time of year, which, for many, is all about joy and treats and enjoying time with your family,” Helen Barnard, director of policy, research and impact at the Trussell Trust says.

This is a bleak reality that has persisted over several years, and Christmases, now.

In 2010/11, the charity distributed 61,000 parcels. Last year, its food banks distributed a record 3.12 million emergency food packages. In December and January alone, they provided 600,000 emergency food parcels. Unfortunately, the charity doesn’t expect that this year will be any different.

Barnard said that in the first half of this year, Trussell saw “levels pretty close” to the 3.1 million parcels they distributed last year.

This year, there will be no cost of living payment or energy bill support.

With the one-off cost-of-living payments last November, she said: “Every time they went out, you would see a dip in food bank need, it would then shoot up again, because the drivers [of food bank use] are long-term low incomes”.

Barnard says that “no one ever expects to need to use a food bank”, adding that some people who have supported and donated to food banks for years, now find themselves needing to access one.

Adam Raffell, the manager at York Food Bank took a moment during a busy food bank drop-in to speak with Left Foot Forward.

Last year, York Food Bank distributed 966 three-day emergency food parcels in December. He thinks that this year will be similar.

“There are two stories,” Raffell says, “One story is the goodwill that exists out in the community, particularly in our community in York, to help people. The other story is the lamentable situation where increasing numbers of families are just unable to afford essentials.”

He says that even people coming to the food bank with donations say, “We really shouldn’t need to be doing this. How have we found ourselves in a situation where people are literally choosing between putting the heating on or eating?”.

York Food Bank’s last session before Christmas will be on Christmas Eve, but they will open once between Christmas and New Year, before reopening in January.

Raffell says: “When you think about Christmas, you think about joyful family situations and celebrating. People using food banks often aren’t thinking about that, they’re thinking, ‘How will I make sure we have food to last us through this period?'”.

“It’s very sad to see that”.

York Food Bank gives out any Christmas gifts that people donate, as well as trying to provide Christmas-themed foods and gift cards which enables people to buy a small amount of fresh and frozen food items.

“None of these replace the dignity of being able to afford essential items you need to get by, we’re the sticking plaster,” he adds.

Despite this, he says “we’ll be here for as long as we need to, but our desire to see the need for foodbanks decrease”.

Andrew Forsey, national director at Feeding Britain, a charity dedicated to creating a hunger-free Britain, said: “We are humbled by the generous support that so many people choose to give at this time of year. It helps charities like ours to provide that extra bit of help which can keep people both fed and warm over the Christmas period.”

However, he noted that “We’ve traditionally found that late January is when we start to encounter acute hardship and financial difficulty among people struggling to pay the bills. And, worryingly, the new year looks set to bring with it a real-terms cut in social security payments for those people.”

Barnard explains that several factors cause people to rely on food banks, including job loss, reduced working hours, ill health, caring responsibilities for children or family members, bereavement, and domestic abuse.

“Those things don’t need to drive you into the depths of poverty, the reason they do is because our social security system is fundamentally not fit for purpose in the modern world,” she says.

The social security system contributes to poverty through issues like difficulty accessing disability benefits, the five-week wait for Universal Credit that can lead to debt, and benefits that don’t match the actual cost of essentials.

In its election manifesto, Labour pledged to “end mass dependence on emergency food parcels”, referring to them as “a moral scar on our society”.

Barnard says “my main hope is that they [the government] will put together a more comprehensive plan on how they’re going to deliver the end of emergency food”.

One of their asks of government is for the benefit system to have a “protected minimum floor” ensuring that payments cannot fall below a certain level, regardless of factors like debt or the benefit cap.

The charity is also calling on the government to increase the standard allowance for Universal Credit, which is the monthly amount a recipient is entitled to based on their circumstances, and for them to lift the two-child benefit cap.

Forsey highlighted another problem with the benefits system that pushes people into hardship is that the government uprates payments based on the previous September’s inflation figures.

He said: “A New Year’s resolution I’d suggest to the Government is that it modernises the uprating process to ensure those with the least in our society do not suffer a big cut in their living standards which necessitates the use of food banks.”

On the government’s decision to vote against an SNP motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap in July, Barnard says “every year that we have benefits set at a level wildly below the cost of essentials, and every year we don’t support families with three or more children is going to make the situation worse”.

She says that Trussell Trust knows the government is juggling financial pressures, “but if we got to the end of a Labour term and they had not reduced the number of people facing hunger and forced to go to food banks, I think they would feel disappointed in themselves.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward