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Thursday, December 05, 2013

Food Bank Poverty

Hungry Fifers are going without food for days as times get tougher for low earners. One woman turned up at Dunfermline Foodbank having had nothing to eat for two days. Alarmingly, around half of the people who turn up looking for help cannot afford food despite being in employment.
John Drylie, who runs the foodbank said “About 50% of the people we are dealing with at the foodbank are on low wages, which is quite a concern. They’re not making ends meet. For low wage earners, something like a big bill is enough to put them back. We are finding that they are making sure the kids have something to eat but they are going without.

A new Kirkcaldy foodbank has been launched, as the town faces poverty “of an unbelievable scale”.
“The opening comes as one local Fife charity has predicted ‘the worst year yet’ for poor families, with many needing help just to survive and dreading Christmas this year as a result of benefit changes and the spiralling cost of food and fuel. Years ago, a Christmas appeal would focus on toys — the kind of presents those families struggling to make ends meet could enjoy as small extras. Now, the main emphasis in our appeals this Christmas is for basic food. Our Christmas message must be that no Government should allow the poor and vulnerable to sink so low that they cannot feed themselves.” local MP Gordon Brown, ex- Chancellor and ex-Prime minister said, oblivious to his own contribution to the situation.

The failure to establish a major foodbank project in Glenrothes could see some children go hungry on a daily basis, according to a leading community figure, Mary Hill, director of the Glenrothes YMCA-YWCA, who also said that the number of local families going hungry will only increase in the near future, as many continue to be affected by the economic climate.

Levenmouth Foodbank was launched in September as more and more people find themselves in financial crisis, compounded by the recession, benefit changes, the so-called bedroom tax and soaring energy bills. Councillor Andrew Rodger said: “It’s disgraceful in a civilised society like Britain we have foodbanks because of what is going on at UK level.”

Welfare changes have seen a 120% rise in people using the Dundee foodbank. In all, 1,958 people, including 465 children, used the charitable facility this year, compared to 887 for the same period in 2012. More than 700 of those who used the Dundee foodbank were referred by the Scottish Welfare Fund, which has halted its issuing of crisis loans. The startling figures reflect the growing use of foodbanks across Scotland, with 8,000 more people using their services around the country — a 400% increase on figures from the same period last year.

“The reality is that there is a clear link between benefit delays or changes and people turning to foodbanks, and that the situation has got worse in the last three months,” said the Trussell Trust’s executive chairman Chris Mould. “Since April’s welfare reforms we’ve seen more people referred to foodbanks because of benefit delays or changes,” he said.

The Rev David Robertson, a Free Church of Scotland minister, believes that the increased figures reflect that the Government has got its priorities wrong. “We’re not talking here about people who have just come off the street. These are people who are being referred and have a genuine need,” he said. “I think the fact that that increase in the use of the foodbank has taken place shows the real impact of the cuts...“How can they be subsidising childcare for a family on £300,000 a year while people are going hungry and being thrown out of their homes? It is the politics of privilege and the economics of madness.” 

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