4 Facts You Didn’t Know About Food Banks
All kinds of people run into financial difficulties, and food banks are there to assist ordinary people who find themselves struggling to feed the family. The use of food banks in the UK is rising, and many London charity volunteers help out with the day to day running of the facilities. Here are some surprising facts about the UK’s food banks and the people that use them every month.
1. Food Bank Usage Is Seasonal
The strain placed on UK food banks changes over the course of each year. Why? The answer isn’t in food consumption but in the strain on the family budget; over the summer, more families find themselves running out of cash as they’re forced to find extra money to entertain the kids.
Children who are fed at school for free are also more vulnerable, since their parents have to find extra cash to feed them when they’re on holiday, and that can cause a surge in demand. London charity workers feel the strain, particularly in Tower Hamlets which has the largest proportion of children receiving free school meals.
2. Debt and Unemployment Are to Blame
In tough economic times, people find themselves suddenly in need of charity support when they lose their jobs or struggle to make ends meet. Often, becoming unemployed can trigger a cycle of financial problems that are made worse by borrowing cash and rolling over expensive short-term loans.
London Charity First Love Foundation runs the Tower Hamlets foodbank, and it says the average salary in the area is £11,400. 52 per cent of children in its catchment area live in poverty. According to figures published by the Trussell Trust, many people say a delay in getting their benefit payments forces them to seek help from a food bank.
3. UK Food Bank Demand Will Double
Between April and September 2013, 109,294 adults accessed food banks in the UK, receiving three or more days of emergency food.
By April 2013, it’s expected that more than 200,000 people will need food bank help.
These estimates were issued by the Trussell Trust, a UK charity that runs more than 400 food banks across the country.
4. Food Banks May Not Be the Solution to Hunger
Some experts believe that food banks are merely a sticking plaster that fails to address the cause of the food shortage. Additionally, some of the food that passes through food banks is allegedly of such low quality that it fails to address the most serious problem of poverty: malnutrition.
There’s also a stigma attached to food banks, and many of the people who really need the support simply prefer not to use them. They don’t want to be associated with receiving charity or queueing for handouts.
Supporting Food Banks
While families struggle to make ends meet, food banks will be under increasing demand, and you might feel that you want to help. There are various ways you can volunteer for London charities that run food banks, or support a cause in another part of the UK.
You could donate food at your local supermarket, set up a fundraiser at work or set yourself a challenge that you can be sponsored for. If you have time on your hands, think about volunteering for London charities by helping them give out food or run a vital event. And if you’re really dedicated to the cause, look for London charity jobs that would put you in the thick of it, helping families in poverty to feed their families and get the support they desperately need.
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By
is a journalist working with Third Sector Jobs.
