Summer Holidays brings grim milestone for food bank

For the first time in its history Hackney Foodbank supported more than 1,000 people in just one week as the summer holidays left many families in crisis.

In the week commencing July 22, the charity provided food for 1,030 people – a huge increase on the rolling average of 630 people per week. 46% of those supported in that week were children.

Pat Fitzsimons, CEO of Hackney Foodbank, said: “This is a milestone we hoped we’d never reach.  With Universal Credit rolling out in Hackney and replacing various legacy payments, many households have been plunged into crisis because of a gap between the old benefits stopping and the new one beginning.

“The summer holidays have always brought a rise in demand for food banks but here in Hackney where rents are so high, families can quickly find themselves unable to meet the extra costs of feeding the children during the school holidays.”

The charity recently received £20,000 from the National Lottery’s Community Fund, to provide supermarket vouchers for families experiencing hardship who are referred to the food bank during the school holidays. But with more than £10,000 worth of food being distributed by the food bank each week, the pressures are mounting to ensure no-one in the community goes hungry.

Hackney Foodbank is part of the Trussell Trust network – it has six food distribution centres across the borough and the Hackney Giving Van (a mobile food bank which delivers emergency food to local neighbourhoods).  Emergency food parcels are comprised of non-perishable food and are enough to last for three days.  Everyone supported by the food bank must be referred – by a charity or professional such as a social worker or GP.

Pat added: “Many of the people we support are working poor – nurses, teachers and others whose salaries and Universal Credit don’t amount to enough to cover the necessities like rent and food.  We’re part of the Trussell Trust Guarantee Our Essentials campaign, calling on the government to ensure Universal Credit covers the basic costs of living.  If that happened, demand for food banks like ours would fall considerably.”

In addition to providing emergency food, the charity has a full-time caseworker and a part-time debt advisor who support visitors and help address the root causes of poverty.

More than 70% of people who visit Hackney Foodbank only come between one and three times a year.

Among the benefits Universal Credit is being rolled out to replace are jobseekers’ allowance, employment and support allowance, income support, child tax credit, working tax credit and housing benefits.