Two stories on the Today programme this morning separated by other news items but intrinsically linked caught my attention.
The first – a story about British food prices, which are set to rise following a poor harvest in the UK because of the wet weather. The story could equally have been that food prices are due to rise even more than expected, as earlier in the summer there was a similar report about the impact the drought in the US had on the grain harvest there and anticipated rises in food prices here.
The second – a story about the Red Cross in Spain appealing for food for up to 300,000 of the most vulnerable people in Spain who can no longer afford to eat due to the economic crisis there.
The reporter in the latter piece didn’t ask the question directly, so I will. Could the implication of the food price rises, combined with economic factors and changes to benefits mean that we reach the levels of crisis in relation to food being witnessed now in Spain?
We don’t, thankfully, currently have the levels of unemployment in Spain, where one in four people of working age are out of work. We do, however, have 13 million people living in poverty and people both in and out of work who are struggling to make ends meet. These are people who are having to make choices about whether to pay the rent or buy food, parents who are skipping meals so their children can eat. Although not on the scale of the Spanish Red Cross appeal, a few weeks ago a campaign was launched by Save the Children to raise money for families in Britain who can’t afford enough food or winter clothes for their children. And according to the Trussell Trust, who run around 250 foodbanks, just under 129,000 people were fed by foodbanks in 2011-12 – 100 per cent more than last year. They are aiming to establish a foodbank in every town.
Normal people use foodbanks. I was recently at a meeting talking about food overty – an issuing I am leading an investigation on as a member of the London assembly – and a man in his fifties spoke about how he and his wife had recently had to use one. He was understandably angry – he had worked all his life, paid his taxes and national insurance, but had been made redundant earlier in the year and simply could not make ends meet. These are people like us facing hard times including – possibly – some people reading this article. People who can’t afford food now, let alone if prices rise further.
Foodbanks are a powerful community response to a growing crisis. However, we do need to establish what a long-term – Labour – political solution would be that would eradicate the need for foodbanks on the scale envisaged. What will we do about the levels of poverty in our towns and cities and behind our neighbours’ doors that mean the number of people needing them to rely on foodbanks is rising? In the seventh richest country in the world, and as the Save the Children campaign stated, ‘It shouldn’t happen here’.
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Fiona Twycross is a Labour member of the London assembly. For more details on her investigation into food poverty or to take part in the consultation please see here.
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