This is utterly shameful

EVERYBODY understands lemongrove’s point of view because she has summed up the truth of the situation.

The problem is some posters would far rather blame the government for absolutely everything.

Doesn’t it get incredibly tedious?

And a very detailed pre-pandemic report here www.stateofhunger.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/State-of-Hunger-Report-November2019-Digital.pdf

It says that 8-10% of U.K. households are food insecure (before the pandemic), which is shameful really. 2% of households were using a food bank then.

Lemon We have a rotten government giving their pals billions. Tory Government have caused the unessessary austerity that has caused poverty starving children Remember the UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston says poverty in the U.K. Is systematic and tragic

www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty-institute/news/2019/un-rapporteur-final-report.html

lemongrove, I have witnessed just how quickly our government actually can respond when the trappings of red tape, legal loops and their usual cumbersome-couch-potato-bureaucratic-antics all cease and they hit the floor running-

They pretend to be obese when in fact they're nimble as a kitten- Just lazy- And the only reason that charities have been triggered here is due to governmental gluttony-

It’s ridiculous to say that all parties would be the same. Have a look at the last decade of figures I posted, or read the reports. Austerity has driven this increase.

Alternatively gave a look at the piece on the New York Times today about cronyism and waste in the U.K. govt www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/17/world/europe/britain-covid-contracts.html

JenniferEccles

EVERYBODY understands lemongrove’s point of view because she has summed up the truth of the situation.

The problem is some posters would far rather blame the government for absolutely everything.

Doesn’t it get incredibly tedious?

It's too narrow a view to reveal the whole truth- It's like sitting in meadow of many flowers and staring at a single bloom while pretending the rest never grew-

rosecarmel

JenniferEccles

EVERYBODY understands lemongrove’s point of view because she has summed up the truth of the situation.

The problem is some posters would far rather blame the government for absolutely everything.

Doesn’t it get incredibly tedious?

It's too narrow a view to reveal the whole truth- It's like sitting in meadow of many flowers and staring at a single bloom while pretending the rest never grew-

You have a lovely way with words

The Child Poverty Action Group was set up in 1965 and many of my friends at university in the late 60’s joined. For many many years I have donated to charities for clean water and yet we never seem to achieve this.
As Lemongrove has said this is not just about the UK or political parties. It is a global problem that has been going on for some long time exacerbated by Covid.

Don’t bother reading any of the reports detailing what has happened in the last decade then

None so blind

lemongrove

Wrong ww as foodbanks were started in around 2000 in the UK and other countries, and in 1967 in the US.
Churches have been helping for longer than that of course.

Yes this is true. The school I worked in didn't have a breakfast club then but we did give breakfast to some children. Staff paid for it.

We have had a local food bank for many years. It's based at a nearby church. Volunteers distributed boxes to households in need to a dozen villages. Since covid demand has gone up rapidly and now thy are proving for many more. In addition to the hub church others are now keeping emergency stocks of tins, uht milk, nappies and baby formula, etc.

They are struggling to keep up with demand now and as individuals church members can only give so much. The money is needed locally. I don't think local councils are doing anything like enough. But then they never have. 10, 20 and more years ago money never trickled down as far as rural communities.

For information;

The largest provider of food banks, the Trussell Trust, had very few food banks 2005 -2006, 57 in 2009 -2010, and 1200+ in 2018 -2019

I realise that there are other providers but this is the largest one in the UK and the one I could find figures for.

I worked in a school in a deprived area from 2000 - 2013. We provided breakfasts from about 2005 on, but this was not necessarily because of parent poverty, it could equally have been because of parental inadequacy. But I don't think this adds anything to the discussion.

Poverty is, indeed, a global problem, but the causes of poverty are many and are not the same in every country.

The UK is a developed nation. It has no shortages of food; it also, apparently, until the current pandemic crisis, had very little shortage of jobs. In which case, it seems to me that the prime cause of poverty in the UK is the result of the economic system that we run, a system in which people are very poorly rewarded for working and wealth is, once again, being concentrated in the hands of few.

The poor are always with us because for centuries the economic and social systems in Western 'civilised' countries has ensured that they are.

No-one seems prepared to discuss this, though.

I am?

Whitewavemark2

I am?

I was mentally excluding one or two posters

lemongrove

I prefer to take a balanced look at things whitewave and won’t be drawn into trading insults with you on any thread.

You can call it balances all you want.

That doesn’t make it true.

I think we’re all missing the key solution to food insecurity - eat the rich. It’s not just a peppy anarcho-communist slogan, it’s also a handy and sustainable way to ensure everyone had enough food!

Wait, that wouldn’t really work with social distancing...

JenniferEccles with regards to “truth”, everyones truth is different depending on their core beliefs and ideology.

How ever many counter arguments put forward in support of a personal position, it is difficult to change opposing views, conversely it’s likely to harden them.

Conservatives do not believe in government intervention to promote social and economic equality, but expect the free market to reward individuals according to talent and hard work.
Liberals tend to favour more government intervention in order to promote social and economic equality.

Clearly governments form social policy according to their political ideological position, and it is a political choice.

Notwithstanding the pandemic, which has made the situation worse, social policy, under a Tory government, has helped to greatly exacerbate social inequality, with its attendant social disadvantages in multiple ways.

I know I am prejudiced, but struggle to understand, even acknowledging entrenched beliefs, how we can justify the fact, that our fellow human beings struggle for basic necessities, dignity, and life chances which should be the right of everyone in our wealthy country, and not dependent on charity.

We are not by a long way all in this together, not even during this pandemic.

I hadn’t heard about this before speaking to my cousin today.
The aid has gone to children in Southwark ? All well and good.
What about children elsewhere ? London is not a country.

So it's £25K for breakfast boxes for children in London?

Southwark is such a deprived and overpopulated area. I used to work there and it was so sad.

QuaintIrene

I hadn’t heard about this before speaking to my cousin today.
The aid has gone to children in Southwark ? All well and good.
What about children elsewhere ? London is not a country.

I assume it's because the grant has been given to "School Food Matters", which is a London-based charity. Presumably somebody in the charity applied for it. Charities in other areas need to do the same.

"Unicef has pledged a grant of £25,000 to the community project School Food Matters, which will use the money to supply 18,000 nutritious breakfasts to 25 schools over the two-week Christmas holidays and February half-term, feeding vulnerable children and families in Southwark, south London, who have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic."

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/16/unicef-feed-hungry-children-uk-first-time-history

That only works out to less than £1.50 per child, so presumably some money is coming from another source.

Anything that helps keep hungry kids fed is great. There are kids in need everywhere I didn't mean to imply the money was going to the wrong children. Just so sad and worry how bad will things get.

What really gets to me is the food that is wasted particularly by Supermarkets. Anyone who has seen the overflowing bins of barely out of date produce can only be aghast at the complete and utter waste. same with households again particularly after public holidays,Christmas being top of the league. I was a war baby of a widowed mother and one thing I was taught was to clear my plate as food was in short supply, expensive, and not to be wasted for any reason. Surely the supermarkets at least could put their perfectly good 'waste' to a better use than landfill?!

Supermarkets are doing their bit Jaberwok.

fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/fareshare-go-support/