Commissions Unit- Idea Research Food Banks

My Hero- Food banks.

 A food bank is part of a non-profitable organisation that distributes food to those who have difficulty. There are food banks across the country set up to help people in need of help with buying their families food. More food banks have had to be introduced in the last year to supply for the demand of help needed.

 13 million people live below the poverty line. In 2012-13 food banks fed 346,992 people nationwide. Of those helped, 126,889 were children. Rising costs of food and fuel combined with static income, high unemployment and changes to benefits are causing more and more people to go to food banks.

 Trussell Trust are a charity in Medway that run food banks. They have over 400 food banks currently launched.On their website they explain how food banks work and what stages they go through. First stage is food is donated by the public to the local food bank. Large collections are made around the time of the harvest festival as most of the food banks can be found in churches or churches donate the collection from the harvest festival to local food banks. Food is then sorted through by volunteers, they check the dates on the items and then store the items into boxes. Frontline care professionals then identify the people in need. Care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, social workers, CAB and police identify people in crisis and issue them with a food bank voucher. Food bank partner with a wide range of care professionals who are best placed to assess need and make sure that it is genuine. When people receive food bank vouchers they can go to food banks centres and receive three days of emergency food. Volunteers meet clients over a cup of tea or free hot meal and are able to signpost people to agencies able to solve the long-term problem.

Here is an article published by the Guardian commenting on food banks;

Food poverty: Panorama, Edwina Currie and the missing ministers

The rise of food banks in Britain tells a story of punitive welfare changes, but as a BBC documentary found, the government is curiously reluctant to stand up and defend the reform 

Groceries donated to a food bank. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2014/mar/03/food-poverty-panorama-edwina-currie-and-the-missing-ministers-food-banks