On my way to work one day last week, I heard on our local radio station that a foodbank in Sussex had reported seeing children suffering from scurvy. The discussion moved on from mild surprise to some practical tips from a nutritionist for foodbank donors regarding their contributions, in order to ensure users received their optimum vitamin C intake.
I'm not sure what I found most disturbing: the fact that in a relatively properous part of a First World country in the 21st century children were being diagnosed with a disease from the days of press gangs and broadsides, or the matter-of-fact way in which this was discussed. The problem, it seemed, was that kind-hearted but misguided donors weren't making healthy enough contributions. If only they would give more tinned fruit in juice rather than syrup, all would be well! The atrocious scandal that today families are relying on Foodbanks, even as our Social Security system is dismembered - supposedly with 'tax-payers' and 'hard-working families' cheering the process on - was not up for debate.
Another day, another Foodbank story - this time, a local newspaper splashing a headline that the police 'Give Criminals Free Food' all over its front page and billboards, with the result that the scheme under scrutiny is suspended by the local Police Commissioner, the story makes the 'nationals' and TV and the trolls come out to play. The background to this story - that since March, seven vouchers for the local foodbank, each worth three days' food, had been given out by the police, apparently to people caught shop-lifting due to hunger. That's barely one a month, so hardly an incentive to adopt a life of crime, but it's a sad sign of the times that anyone should be forced to steal simply to feed themselves, and a pretty clear indication that these people aren't hardened criminals if the police are moved to find them a square meal rather than the inside of a prison cell.
The worry has to be that the negative headlines will put people off donating - one commenter on the paper's website claimed that s/he had been about to set up a monthly donation to the foodbank, but changed their mind on reading the story. I suspect that comment was simply hot air from a regular grumbler, but it will give some people pause for thought when they see a collection being made and someone with no food will spend another day hungry as a consequence, or may feel driven to theft or other crime.
Bad journalism suggesting that a compassionate scheme encouraged shop-lifting won't stop desperate, hungry people from stealing food for themselves and their families; the threat of hanging or transportation didn't do that, and sadly it's unlikely that even the most well-provisioned foodbank will achieve that either, when benefit cuts are leaving single people and families without the bare minimum they need to live on. And demand has soared during the summer holidays according to this disturbing article from the Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/summer-of-hunger-huge-rise-in-food-bank-use-as-demand-linked-to-welfare-reform-8755101.html?origin=internalSearch
The comment late in the item from the DWP stating that they do not believe the rising demand for foodbank provisions is linked to the 'welfare reform' process is demonstrably untrue, if only because a specific piece of that reform - the dismantling of the discretionary element of the Social Fund and the devolving of its remit to help people in crisis situations to Local Authorities - has led very directly and deliberately to a rise in referrals to foodbanks.
Much as I admire the dedication and compassion of foodbank volunteers and the humanity of people who donate, the sad fact is that foodbanks are masking the true impact of benefit cuts and allowing charity to be substituted for proper state support. But if the alternative is hungry kids during the school holidays and people stealing food through hunger, I'd better look out for the special offers on tinned fruit in juice, and lob a few cans into the collection trolley.
