New data released today shows April 2018 to March 2019 to be the busiest year for food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network since the charity opened.
During the past year, 1,583,668 three-day emergency food supplies were given to people in crisis in the UK; more than half a million of these (577,618) went to children. This is an 18.8% increase on the previous year. Continue reading Charity calls for end to Universal Credit five week wait as food bank demand soars
Shocking new figures have exposed an alarming picture of food bank use in Scotland, with nearly double the number of food parcels being given out than previously thought.
The new data, collected by the Independent Food Aid Network and A Menu for Change, for the first time reveals the startling number of food parcels given out by independently run food banks across the country.
The data shows that between April 2017 and September 2018, 84 independent food banks distributed 221,977 emergency food packages. Previously, centralised data for the number of food parcels collectively distributed by independent food banks hasn’t existed.
The numbers of three-day food supplies given out by independently run food banks build on existing figures, published by the Trussell Trust, which showed their network of 118 food banks distributed 258,606 food parcels during the same time period.
The new combined statistics mean that an estimated total of at least 480,583 food parcels – nearly half a million – were distributed by both Trussell Trust and independent food banks across Scotland between April 2017 and September 2018.
The Independent Food Aid Network supports and connects a range of independent frontline food aid organisations while advocating on their behalf at a national level. Their vision is of a country that doesn’t need emergency food aid and in which good food is accessible to all.
Sabine Goodwin, Coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, led the research. She said: “These statistics are deeply troubling, and provide yet more evidence of the growing number of people in Scotland who are unable to put food on the table.
“They also demonstrate the enormous collective effort of independent food bank volunteers and staff who are doing all they can to try to prevent people in their communities from facing hunger. Of course, we and they all know the long-term solution to hunger isn’t giving out food; it’s raising income. People should be helped financially well before they find themselves having to turn to a food bank as a last resort.”
The true scale of food bank provision in Scotland is even higher than these combined figures reveal, as a small number of independent food banks operational in Scotland during the research period were unable to contribute data to the Independent Food Aid Network and A Menu for Change’s joint project.
Experts are also warning that data on food parcel distribution still only provides a partial picture of the number of people in Scotland who are struggling to feed themselves and their families; with most people choosing to use other ways of coping, like skipping meals, rather than use a food bank. Last year, figures released by the Scottish Government revealed that one in five single parents in Scotland had faced hunger.
Kirkcaldy Foodbank operates multiple venues where people can access emergency food supplies. Joyce Leggate, Chair of the Foodbank, said: “Today’s statistics represent a worrying and growing number of people across Scotland who are struggling to make ends meet.
“Every day in Kirkcaldy, we meet people who are being driven to our doors because of problems with the benefits system. A third of the food parcels we give out go to families with children; the innocent victims of a system which is pushing people into debt, despair and poverty.
“We hope that today’s figures shine a light on the previously hidden role independent food banks are playing in picking up the pieces of a failing social safety net, and spur policy makers into taking decisive action to stop food banks like ours from becoming entrenched in Scottish society.”
Research shows that problems with the UK wide benefits system is one of the key drivers of food bank use, but Scottish campaigners from A Menu for Change say that the Scottish Government must urgently use its new social security powers to help prevent people in Scotland from being pushed further into poverty.
Scottish Ministers have promised to bring in a new income supplement by 2022 to help Scotland’s poorest families, but campaigners say people facing hardship can’t afford to wait three years for this extra support.
A Menu for Change is a partnership project run by Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, Nourish Scotland, Oxfam Scotland and the Poverty Alliance, and funded by the Big Lottery Fund. It aims to reduce the need for food banks.
Dr. Mary Anne MacLeod, Research and Policy Officer at A Menu for Change, said: “These figures are truly shameful in rich Scotland and they should make for deeply uncomfortable reading for our political leaders: the problem of rising levels of hunger in Scotland is much worse than previously known.
“The Scottish Government should be commended for its plans to help families put food on the table through the new income supplement, but promises to help people in three years’ time are of little comfort to parents whose cupboards are empty right now.
“If the Scottish Government wants to reduce the number of people facing hunger, it must urgently bring forward its plans to top up the incomes of Scotland’s poorest families from 2022.”
Did you know that the DWP has created a website dedicated specifically to Universal Credit? The site is designed to help claimants and supporters negotiate their way through the often complex and confusing benefit labyrinth. Continue reading As we see it: the two different sides of Universal Credit
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Food banks:
Trussel Trust
The Pilton branch will be closed on Wednesday 2nd January.
Full location, days and time for each foodbank centre can be found at: http://edinburghnw.foodbank.org.uk
Edinburgh City Mission at Granton Parish Church, Edinburgh
Closed on Tuesday 1st January.
Pilton Community Health Project also produced this useful support guide:
Figures from the Trussell Trust, showing that 17,328 people in the City of Edinburgh and 21,443 people in Lothian were provided with three-day emergency food supplies from this one food bank charity alone, highlight the urgent need to implement the Scottish Greens’ ten-point plan to tackle poverty, says Lothian MSP Alison Johnstone. Continue reading Rise in food bank use is national scandal, say Greens
Universal Credit contributing to child poverty
‘Broken’ benefits system failing Scotland’s families
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to make urgent changes to Universal Credit (UC) as she backed warnings from Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner Bruce Adamson over the ‘disproportionate effect’ of UK Government welfare policies on young people. Continue reading First Minister calls for changes to “broken welfare state”
Sixteen projects across Scotland will share £350,000 to help families access fresh and healthy food, Communities Secretary Angela Constance has announced. It’s the second allocation of money from the £1 million Fair Food Fund which is already funding 20 projects. Continue reading Tackling the scourge of food poverty
New group will explore ways to reduce reliance on foodbanks
The scourge of food poverty and possible solutions to Scotland’s increasing reliance on foodbanks will be investigated by a new group when representatives from poverty organisations and charities convene for their first meeting today.
The short term working group will identify the issues which push people into food poverty and discuss how they can be addressed.
The group, chaired by the Secretary of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council Rev Dr Martin Johnstone, has been asked to make recommendations to the Scottish Government by February 2016 on the actions required to eradicate food poverty in Scotland.
The first meeting coincides with the Poverty Alliance’s annual Challenge Poverty Week which runs from October 17 to 23 and aims to challenge the stereotypes around poverty and increase public support to combat it.
The latest statistics from the Trussell Trust show that a total of 117,689 people picked up a three-day supply of groceries from their Scottish foodbanks in 2014-15. Of those, 36,114 were children. This is more than EIGHT TIMES the number helped just two years ago.
Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil said: “It is heart breaking that anyone should be left hungry and unable to afford to feed their families in a country as prosperous as Scotland.
“UK Government welfare cuts and benefit sanctions have continually pushed more and more people into food poverty and increased the demand and number of food banks in Scotland. This shocking trend has to stop.
“By bringing together a range of experts who support people in food poverty we hope the group will come up with a food strategy that will reduce the need for foodbanks over time.
“Food poverty cannot be solved overnight which is why the group will look at how we can address some of its long-term causes and whether we can take a more joined up approach to welfare benefits advice, health and employment support services.
“I look forward to hearing the group’s recommendations on how we can ease the pressure on food banks, tackle food poverty and create a fairer Scotland.”
The Scottish Government currently invests £1 million into the Emergency Food Action Plan which helps support 26 local emergency food aid projects and the charity Fareshare to redistribute surplus food from retailers to communities across Scotland.
The group’s recommendations will feed into the Scottish Government’s Social Justice Action Plan. This will be published in the new year with milestones to the next Parliament and beyond to help tackle poverty and create fairer opportunities for all.
The chair of the group, Rev Dr Martin Johnstone, said: “I am delighted to be chairing this independent Working Group on Food Poverty, whilst appalled that in a country as wealthy as Scotland the number of people going hungry is increasing by thousands each year.
“Our starting point will be that we need to reverse that trend. The group will bring together people with a wide variety of experiences of tackling food poverty including, critically, those with direct experience of what it means not to have enough for you and your family.
“I hope that together we can highlight what is working, what needs to change and what the Scottish Government and others can do to bring about a hunger free Scotland.”
Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance said: “The growth of foodbanks in recent years is the surest sign that we need to do more to tackle poverty in Scotland.
“Challenge Poverty Week is aimed at highlighting that solutions to poverty do exist, and the work that volunteers across Scotland do week in and out providing emergency food aid shows that people are committed to tackling the scandal of food poverty.
“But it is necessary that we find longer term solutions to food poverty. So we welcome the Scottish Government convening this new group to find lasting solutions to the problem. Through it we will be able to draw on the experience and expertise of those volunteering in foodbanks, people using emergency food aid and those involved in community food projects to make a real difference in the future.”
As you may be aware, following the publication of our research report on emergency food aid in Scotland (www.foodaidscotland.org), the Poverty Alliance is running a series of regional workshop events for those involved in delivering emergency food aid in Scotland.
The aim is to provide opportunities for networking, peer support and learning, and to connect with wider anti-poverty work and campaigns.
The sessions will include presentations from invited speakers and group work discussion on the following themes:
Sanctions and the Scottish Welfare Fund
Stigma and challenging public attitudes to poverty
The following future events are planned:
Edinburgh – 16 June
Aberdeen – 27 August
Inverness – 22 October
For more info please contact: maryanne.macleod@povertyalliance.org
Scottish Green MSPs are calling for wage rises to help address the problem of food poverty in Scotland, as new figures from the Trussell Trust show the use of food banks has risen by two-thirds over the last year.
The trust issued emergency supplies on 117,689 occasions in Scotland last year – including 18,000 times in Glasgow and 14,000 in Edinburgh.
Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green MSP for Glasgow, said: “These figures are sobering. It’s clear that the dismantling of the benefits system, the unfair sanctions regime and the low pay economy we now have are all playing a part. It’s simply unacceptable in a country with so much wealth and so much good food.
“An immediate step we could take is to stop subsidising employers who pay poverty wages. Let’s make the minimum wage a Living Wage right now.”
Alison Johnstone, Scottish Green MSP for Lothian, said: “Benefit sanctions, falling wages and an insecure jobs market are all having a big impact. Tackling in-work poverty is paramount.”
