food banks

You may think, I am becoming increasingly reactionary, but I cant help feeling very frustrated by a world where local authorities don’t have the resources to help the desperately needy and might instead refer them to food banks. Stories like this make it clear that this recession is very, very serious in its implications for a whole bunch of ordinary folks. That is not to detract from the value of charitable endeavour. I just never imagined when I started work in local government that we would be relying on charities to replace statutory provision with things as basic as providing people with food. This article elaborates telling us:

“Local authorities are preparing to invest in charity-run food banks to cope with an expected deluge in demand for crisis help from low income families hit by welfare cuts, raising the spectre of depression-era US “breadlines”.

Cuts next year to the social fund, which provides emergency aid to vulnerable people, mean that from April 2013 many councils will no longer be able to provide cash help to applicants. Instead they will offer “in kind” support such as referring clients to food banks and issuing electronic food vouchers.

The move, which is being considered by both Labour and Conservative councils as well as the Welsh government, will for the first time build voluntarily donated food distribution into mainstream welfare provision, and will be regarded by critics as a dramatic substitution of the state’s obligations in favour of ad hoc voluntary assistance.”

More interestingly the Guardian has begun mapping the location of food banks, it is still adding to its picture of where they are but lest you thought they were just an urban phenomena have a look at this map.