Photo: Top Left, Resurrected Bites; Top Centre, Wetherby Food Bank; Top Right, St Cuthbert’s Food Bank; Middle Right & and Middle left, Ripon Salvation Army Food Bank; Bottom Left, Centre and Right Harrogate District Food Bank.
The Club’s Food Poverty Action Group had a busy few days shopping. Summer holidays put pressure on food banks. So we asked our local food banks what was needed and went shopping.
- Resurrected Bites Community Shop in Knaresborough needed Laundry Detergent. ‘It flies of the shelf’.
- The Salvation Army Food Bank in Ripon wanted a range of items
- Wetherby Trussell Trust Food Bank also wanted a range of items
- Harrogate District Trussell Trust needed coffee, dried milk and potato powder as well as a range of toiletries and washing up liquid.
- The Nidderdale Food Bank at St Cuthberts in Pateley Bridge needed tinned meats, especially ‘child friendly’ ones (hotdogs etc.), tinned veg, bottled pasta sauces, dried mash, canned fruit, child-friendly treats (crisps and small packs of sweets). We found everything except for dried mash. The total weighed 25.8kg. Tins and bottles are heavy.
The total weight for all our purchases came to approx 250 kg with a cost of £650. It’s estimated by Harrogate District Food Bank that a one person pack weighs 12.5 kg or 50 kg for a family of four. So our shop is the equivalent of supporting 5 families or 20 individuals. People use food banks as a last resort.
Poverty Gap
There is often a gap between income and purchasing life’s essentials that is giving rise to the increased use of food banks. One in five families are struggling to put food on the table, wash the dishes, keep themselves and their clothes clean. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report UK Poverty 2024 highlights how more people including a million children are living in destitution.
Food Banks aren’t the solution. They are a stop gap. But, more people have to use them as a life line. Charities, such as Resurrected Bites, provides food at affordable prices. Ultimately the use of food banks will only be resolved when, the 22% of the population living in poverty, have sufficient income to pay for life’s essentials. #stopukpoverty