Recession triggers rise in demand for foodbanks

|PIC1|Church-run foodbanks have noted a rise in demand in the last year as more people struggle to make ends meet in the recession.

The Ebbw Vale Foodbank serves people in need across the small south Wales county of Blaenau Gwent. Its manager Adrian Curtis, of Festival Church, said more than 730 people had been fed since the foodbank opened last year.

Such is the need that Mr Curtis has helped to set up another five foodbanks in south Wales.

“Churches are looking to their communities, seeing the need and wanting to do something about it,” he said.

Blaenau Gwent has been badly hit by the downturn in manufacturing, a significant part of the local economy, which has led to an increase in the number of people being made redundant and claiming benefits.

“The volume of people coming through demonstrates the need,” said Mr Curtis. “Christmas has been a very tough time for people in Blaenau Gwent.”

One of the longest running foodbanks is Highland Foodbank in Inverness, which fed 3,400 people this year alone. Its coordinator Lorna Dempster said twice as many people had come in for food in the run-up to Christmas this year than last year.

“It can be people from very low incomes or people who have lost their jobs. We are seeing more and more people coming from situations where they just can’t make ends meet and these are people who have come from very reasonable salaries and gone to nothing,” she said.

The foodbanks collect donations from businesses, churches and shoppers at local supermarkets who are given a list of items as they enter and are invited to buy one to donate to the foodbank.

In spite of Blaenau Gwent being one of the poorest boroughs in western Europe, the community has donated more than six tons of food over the last 12 months.

“We’ve never run out of food,” said Mr Curtis. “In the valley communities especially people are very keen to help their neighbours and the community is just rallying around, wanting to see people fed,” he said.

|PIC2|“We had offices this year not giving Christmas cards but instead bringing in a tin of food to give to the foodbank.”

Mr Curtis said some families were struggling to get by on only £40 a week for food, while others who been on a stable income were now having to wait several weeks for their benefits to come through after being made redundant. He said a significant proportion of clients were young people, particularly young men, who had come through the care system and were now struggling to make it on their own.

The foodbanks are an initiative of Christian charity The Trussell Trust and are run through churches, largely by Christian volunteers. Mr Curtis said he felt it was God’s plan for his life to run the foodbank, after being made redundant himself from HBOS earlier in the year.

“We are a church of just six people but we have an amazing vision to help anyone in need and share our faith and the Gospel in a really relevant way. We want to be Jesus’ hands and feet and not just talk about the words of Jesus but live them out.”

He said the Ebbw Vale Foodbank was helping to change local perceptions of the church. More than half of the volunteers are unchurched and although they do not go to services yet, they are getting to know the church through serving at the foodbank and one lady even became a Christian as a result of her volunteering experience.

“Churches are very keen to look beyond their four walls and actually do things that are going to help people in a practical way,” he said. “I think the foodbank is just one part of a very exciting picture of the church in Wales.”

Ms Dempster said the Highland Foodbank had awakened churches in Inverness to the poverty on their doorstep.

“When we started off four years ago a lot of local churches thought that everybody in the town was provided for. ‘There’s no poverty in Britain’ - that was the perception of the churches. But we’ve found over the years that just about every church in Inverness is supporting us now.”

She said the foodbank was an opportunity to share her faith in God with people, regardless of their situation.

“I always view it as an opportunity to share faith and God’s love with people if that’s appropriate,” she said.

“We give out a leaflet with the food explaining where the food has come from and offering to pray for them.

“You just don’t know what’s going on in a person’s life that has made them come to the foodbank and when you get into conversations with them, it can be very sad to hear the stories behind the faces.

“We are not there to judge, just to offer help.”