Words by ITV News Business and Economics Producer Mariah Hedges
Long before the doors open queues form in the rain for the Bread and Butter Thing, a food bank operating across Manchester that aims to help families on low incomes by selling surplus food donated from supermarkets.
Many we spoke to had never been to a food bank before this year. Security guards, barmen and charity workers. Lives turned upside down, young and old, by the pandemic.
Helen, a first-time food bank user told me this makes the difference between eating and not eating. Between being able to heat the house or not.
Covid-19 and everyday experiences of hardship: why charitable provision is not enough
December 21, 2020
Many commentators have rightly observed that the coronavirus pandemic has amplified long-standing socioeconomic and health inequalities, and exposed both the fragility of the UK’s social security system and the growing reliance by so many on charitable food provision. At a time of global crisis, the UK’s fraying safety net has been under scrutiny and subject to urgent though temporary changes to slightly strengthen it, as part of efforts to improve the experiences of those relying on out-of-work social security for the first time.
It should not, however, have taken a global pandemic to get us talking about the endemic insecurity and everyday hardship that characterises social security receipt. The shortcomings with provision, which has been hollowed out and residualised by successive governments, have long been clear to all who took more than a passing interest. Just as so
The Trussell Trust expects to give out six emergency food parcels every minute over winter. Credit: PA
While many will be wondering what to do with the full fridge that was ready for Christmas guests that will never arrive, there will be those in the country who will be asking how they will be getting any food in there at all.
The UK is heading for one of its bleakest Christmases in living memory thanks to the pandemic but the response to the frustration of cancelled plans should not be to throw away all the food, there are many who will need it more.
The BMJ appeal 2020-21: Without good nutrition, children s health outcomes worsen, as do their life chances bmj.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bmj.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.