Christmas is just round the corner and, it seems, a million and one charity schemes have sprung into action in order to feed some of the poorest people in our country. My first reaction is that this shows yet again how kind most people are and that there are many more good people than bad. But I have one reservation about all these worthy initiatives. What happens to those in food poverty when the tinsel and baubles are all back in the loft again? The simple answer is that they remain in food poverty.
I’m well into my third year of volunteering for a food bank and this year we have been busier than ever. However, the number of donations has fallen in 2024, food banks in many areas have been forced to issue smaller emergency parcels and, distressingly, if people show up without being referred to a food bank by a partner organisation. we usually have to turn them away. This, I can assure you, is not an easy nor pleasant experience and not something we take lightly, but what else can we do?
It is not just the worthy organisations that spring up at Christmas and start collecting food and toiletries. Food banks step up their efforts, too, and I have been involved at a food collection point at a very large supermarket, which I will not name but every little helps, as well as doing extra shifts at our food bank to welcome donations. Demand always seems be strong at Christmas but in truth my experience is that demand is strong all year round these days.
Food banks in general are sticking plaster solutions. Christmas collections even more so. A food bank is there in order to provide a short term, emergency solution, although to be fair the Trussell Trust, which most food banks belong to, is working hard at addressing the underlying long term reasons why people are in food poverty. While it is vital that an immediate food crisis is dealt with there and then, that in itself is not enough. And it is a concern I have about those once-a-year collection and donation schemes.
I am not trying to sound all holier than thou by saying that our food bank will still be operating in the New Year after twelfth night. Our austere church hall in which we work will no longer be decorated with all the trimmings and bright lights. Real life goes on exactly as before when the Christmas music playlist is put away for another 11 months. Food poverty is not just for Christmas: for some people it feels like it’s there for life.
Trust me when I say that food poverty is real and that it is widespread, far more widespread than you might imagine. After my first shift of the week, I was physically and mentally knackered because of the sheer number of callers, together the mental effort required to help people, some of whom are on the edge of falling off life’s not terribly rich pageant. That was not something I expected, having long left the world of paid work behind but I am driven in ways I have not always been in life to do right by people, some of whom have nothing and, sometimes it appears, less than nothing.
Those Christmas collection initiatives are truly wonderful and sometimes inspiring and I hope the great organisers and volunteers can help alleviate poverty, in this case food poverty, until the government makes poverty history. The day I am laid off and Christmas collections are no longer needed will be a good day.