'Demand for emergency food is increasing dramatically'

The most extensive report into the causes of food poverty in the UK was published this week (8 December)

Feeding Britain, funded from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Charitable Trust, said it was clear that ‘demand for emergency food assistance is increasing, and sometimes increasing dramatically.’  It made a series of recommendations with the aim of eliminating hunger in the UK by 2020.

The 56-page report is the result of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger in the United Kingdom, which launched in April. The inquiry drew on a large body of evidence, both from a series of regional sessions and from written submissions by more than 200 organisations, including the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which submitted joint evidence alongside the Methodist Church and United Reformed Church.)

It found that the biggest (but not the only) contributor to food bank referrals was problems with benefits.  

One of its main recommendations was the establishment of a new national network – Feeding Britain – which would see food banks, supermarkets, local councils and government departments work together to eliminate food poverty. A fairer and speedier benefits system, a national living wage and greater redistribution of surplus food were also highlighted.  

While the government has denied there is a link between its austerity measures and the rise in food banks in recent years, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said he would respond positively to what he described as a serious report.
 

Reaction

There has been a mixed reaction from Christians involved in campaigning for food justice to the report.

Writing on the JPIT blog, Matt Collins (who was present at the report’s launch) said the inquiry has resigned itself to the fact that foodbanks and food redistribution schemes will be ‘a major part of our society for a long time’. The inquiry and its recommendations were therefore looking at how to embed them (foodbanks) so that they catch everyone – rather than ‘challenging a system which leads to so many people, both in work and out, being unable to afford to feed themselves.’

This was reflected in the response of Keith Hebden, a prime mover behind the End Hunger Fast campaign earlier this year (which was supported by our Baptist Union). He said the report was radical because of where it comes from, rather than what it says: ‘We have the establishment admitting to something that others have been saying for a long time.’

However, he noted that while the report was report ‘extremely comprehensive’ there were some things to be cautious about: there wasn’t enough about the scapegoating of the poorest (which was highlighted in the 2013 JPIT Truth and Lies report), while it seemed to ignore the weight of evidence of the effect of welfare reform on the most vulnerable, particularly those being assessed as ‘fit for work’ when they are disabled or have vulnerable mental health. 

Mr Hebden also argued the need for “justice for the hungry, not just crumbs from under the table”. ‘There is a danger in this that the voluntary sector's role as 'welfare on the cheap' will be formalised and the hunger crisis we’re currently facing will turn into a chronic and acceptable norm,’ he said.

Niall Cooper, National Co-ordinator of Church Action on Poverty, said it is no longer possible to deny the scale of the problem and complex reasons for it. CAP had called for a Parliamentary Inquiry back in May 2013, and Mr Cooper congratulated the inquiry team for ‘a serious and thorough examination’ of the underlying reasons for the huge growth in food poverty and hunger in recent years.

He said the issue of ensuring all our citizens are fed transcends party politics and called on both Government and Opposition to ‘go beyond scoring political points, and to take seriously the question of how we as a nation ensure that no one need go to bed hungry.’

 

 
The Joint Public Issues Team submission 

As part of the Joint Public Issues Team, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church submitted joint evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger in the United Kingdom.

The submission from the JPIT team spoke of ‘the huge and unacceptable rise in the use of food banks and other forms of emergency food support in the UK today.’

It noted the 'real concern' among clergy and those running foodbanks that their charitable service will become an essential part of the welfare state, and that the state 'will withdraw support to vulnerable people such that the aim of providing a universal safety net becomes dependent on their charitable work.'
 
In terms of recommendations it argued for the restoring of low income families’ access to emergency credit, prioritising the creation of decently paid stable work, and that benefit levels be set at the income required to avoid hunger.
 

Earlier this year JPIT published a resource - Faith in Foodbanks - to help churches explore issues raised by foodbanks, and to make connections between the work of these foodbanks and the life, worship and witness of local churches and fellowships.