Tales from the Food Bank (4)

For once, I had some good news for the people using our food bank today. Indeed, I brought a message from the chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt who said: “Today we deliver a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and rebuild our economy. Our priorities are stability, growth, and public services. We also protect the vulnerable because to be British is to be compassionate and this is a compassionate Conservative government.” People were cheering. If you live anywhere near, you’d have heard them. “They’re going to protect me because this is a compassionate Conservative government.” And they went happily on their way’ knowing that thanks to Jeremy Hunt soon they would be hungry no more. If only.

In truth, I rather suspect that few if any of today’s users had any idea who Hunt is, never mind that there was an ‘autumn statement’ today. They had more pressing matters to deal with, like getting something to eat. When you have nothing, I suppose that the news that living standards will fall by 7% in the next two years means very little. You can’t have less than nothing, can you?

I worked in the store cupboard today, packing the bags with items the users say they need. People are so generous when they donate stuff. There’s some ‘economy’ brand stuff which is absolutely fair enough because I know that many of those who donate to us have very little themselves. But there’s also products from Waitrose and M&S. As I have said before, donations are weighed when they come in and weighed again when they go out, ensuring that nothing gets wasted.

When we’ve packed the bags, we say to the users that they are welcome to change anything we’ve put in the bags and sometimes, encouraged by us, they do so. Today, one handed back a jar of lovely looking olives because they didn’t like them. “How can you not like olives?” I said, in jest. That got a good chuckle from the user, which is the whole idea. I want people to feel as relaxed as they can when they see us, even if being relaxed is not how they feel when they come in.

One girl we saw was pregnant and it was obvious it would be a struggle for her to carry the bags we gave her home. Quick as a flash, one of my colleagues offered to carry it back to her flat, which she gratefully accepted. None of us think we are doing anything special, which of course we aren’t, but nonetheless our users our always so grateful. Grateful for having something to eat, having some tampons to use, being able to use soap for a wash.

It was such a weird contrast for me, sitting through Jeremy Hunt’s bullshit and spin and then working in a food bank. His gurning face after he sat down, next to creepy Rishi Sunak, made me feel a bit sick. Still, I suppose we should feel sorry for him because he is only sitting on a family fortune of £14million, compared to Sunak’s three quarters of a billion quid. Hunt must feel a proper pauper in Sunak’s company. Perhaps he took his anger out on poor people today by making them even worse off?

Sorry – bit of politics there and we don’t do politics at the food bank. We don’t say, I’m sorry it’s come to this but it’s all down to 12 years of Tory government, which it literally is. And today, those Tories said that “this is a compassionate Conservative government.” In reality, all the proved was the actual opposite. For the people I saw today, it wasn’t about the cost of living crisis, it’s just about surviving. Nothing more. “We also protect the vulnerable.” Yeah, right.