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Harlow foodbank feeds 500th local person | ||
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December 2009 With recession taking its toll locally, Harlow foodbank has just given food to its 500th client since the project opened in April. As growing numbers of people in Harlow struggle to put food on the table, the foodbank is working with churches, schools and frontline care professionals to provide three days of emergency food to local people in crisis.
As more people need emergency food, more people in the local community are stepping up to help meet the need by supporting the foodbank. All food given out by the foodbank is donated by members of the public, with frontline care professionals such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and Harlow Welfare Rights and others identifying those most in need. So far, no client referred to the foodbank has been turned away empty handed. Over Christmas, the foodbank will be collecting non-perishable food at Sainsbury’s in Harlow on Tuesday 22nd December to give to families facing difficult times over the festive season. Harlow foodbank Director of Community Services Gary Knott says - ‘Sometimes people are surprised by the need for emergency food locally, but hidden hunger is a real problem in the UK. Behind closed doors there are families who would be forced to send their children to bed hungry tonight if the foodbank was not her to help. We see families everyday who are so grateful for a simple foodbox and we are delighted that the local community has been so supportive, enabling the foodbank to have fed over 500 people since we opened in April this year.’ Harlow foodbank is part of a fast-growing network of UK foodbanks launched by The Trussell Trust charity. Recession means that more and more people have been turning to foodbanks for help right across the UK. In the last year alone The Trussell Trust’s foodbank network has fed 26,000 people nationwide, a figure which is expected to leap to 35,000 next year. Trussell Trust Foodbank Network Manager, Jeremy Ravn says - ‘Recession means more people who would never have thought they’d need help are hitting a crisis forcing them to go without food. We are so encouraged that organisations like MRCT who coordinate the foodbank in Harlow are working with the Trussell Trust to open new foodbanks to meet this growing need’. General Notes -
Clients are referred to foodbanks by frontline care professionals who are best positioned to identify people in crisis. Care professionals issue their client with a foodbank voucher which can be redeemed for three days of emergency food. Foodbanks also provide signposting to agencies that are able to help provide longer term solutions to any problems, for example, debt counselling. Clients are referred to foodbanks for a huge variety of reasons, including: redundancy, benefit delay, unemployment, illness, debt, an unexpected bill, or bereavement. Most people who use the foodbank are not homeless. 13 million people in the UK are living on the poverty line according to government statistics. For more information visit: Interviews and photographs are available on request. More news and articles from MRCT |
