Skint and hungry foodbanks on the rise in the UK

The number of foodbanks or soup kitchens in the UK are growing at an alarming rate as the economic downturn claims more and more victims. As many as 13 million people now live below the poverty line. Government benefit cuts, low wages and rising energy and transport costs add to the malaise. The UK’s largest charity involved in providing emergency food supplies expects the number of those needing food aid to rise to half a million by 2015. Adrian Curtis is the Foodbank network director: “We are currently growing a new foodbank project somewhere in the UK every three days, which I think demonstrates the scale of what we are dealing with and we are still on touching the tip of the iceberg.” Last year Save the Children launched a campaign to help the hungry in Britain. According to the European Commission as many as 40 million people are suffering “material deprivation.” One foodbank user spoke of the first time he used the facility: “Very humbling, the first time I came here I got really upset, because I didn’t know about places like this. I started crying, because the people here are so welcoming.” British Chancellor George Osborne is due to announce another slice of benefit cuts, which will leave some of the country’s poorest families 2500 euros worse off per year. A traditional children’s yuletide nursery rhyme springs to mind. “Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.”