The Foodbank...

As I said, I have looked into the idea of the Food bank. One of the biggest providers of food banks in the UK is the Trussell Trust - www.trusselltrust.org, do take a look, a great charity!

This is what they say...

We launched our first foodbank in a garden shed and garage in Salisbury in 2000. The demand for its services was so large that we carried out research into the UK-wide need for foodbanks and discovered that short term hunger was a nationwide problem. The foodbank network was founded in 2004 based on the successful Salisbury foodbank model.

Since 2004 we’ve launched over 300 foodbanks nationwide in a wide range of towns and cities. Our fast-growing network gave emergency food to over 128,000 people in 2011/12. Sadly, many more people are going hungry in towns with no foodbank, which is why we believe that every town should have one.

So I had a look - our closest Foodbank is in Farnham, conveniently run by a church my hubby used to go to (Farnham Vineyard). So now my quandary is this - do I take food to the Farnham foodbank, which will feed those in need in Farnham... but then what about my locality? They need feeding too...

And I guess that's part of the problem. There will always be people who are poor and people who are unable to provide for their needs. No matter how good our benefits system is, someone will always be slipping through a loop hole in the system. And, like a lovely lady who reads this blog commented last week, it's not just people on benefits who live below the line - working people with a big mortgage, or coping with redundancy, or with an unexpected utility bill, or caring for family members live below the line. And they need our help.

Todays thought is, then, that I must help where I can. And helping will take time.... and that's where I come in. As a basically non working mum (I just work a few hours a week), I do have the time that working people don't have, so it's up to me to use it wisely and well.

Some more food for thought from the Trussell Trust....

13 million people live below the poverty line in the UK.

Every day people in the UK go hungry for reasons ranging from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income. Trussell Trust foodbanks provide a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis in the UK.

In 2012-13 foodbanks 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 come to foodbanks for help.