Jon Bellamy spoke with Jeremy Ravn

Jeremy Ravn

With so much hunger and poverty around the world, we can forget that on our own doorstep here in the UK, there are many families who struggle to put food on the table. In fact according to the Trussell Trust website 12.4 million people in the UK live below the poverty line including 3 million children. Food Bank, an initiative of the Trussell Trust has seen demand for their food parcel scheme almost double during the recession; and to find out more about what's happening Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Jeremy Ravn the Food Bank Network Manager.

Jonathan: 12.4 million people living below the poverty line, that's an extraordinary number! What do we mean when we talk about poverty at that level?

Jeremy: That poverty figure is a government own distinction about who is below the poverty line. It's based on the 60% level of average incomes. So if you earn less than 60% of the average income for a family or an individual, then officially you're below the poverty line, and you are then actually entitled to some kind of governmental support whether it's through tax credits or benefits or some kind of support.

Jonathan: Now that includes 3 million children. What impact does poverty have on their lives at that age?

Jeremy: They may not be eating terribly well - they may have to go to school not having had a proper breakfast. Often you know they'll be struggling to compete with their peers in the kind of presents and clothes they wear, which obviously affects there morale and how they see themselves. If you talk to young people they know the situation they're in and it affects their whole attitude to life.

Jonathan: So Food Bank is an initiative of the Trussell Trust. Tell us a little bit about Food Bank; what do you do?

Jeremy: Well the Food Bank exists to provide short term emergency food for people in a crisis whatever that may be. So it's where people have to choose between running their heating, or paying a bill, or meeting their expenses when they've had a benefits change, or perhaps they've changed their job and they haven't been paid this week. So it really acts as a sort of life-saver so they don't end up losing their house, ending up on the street - shoplifting, or having some other kind of major crisis in their life. So it's very much a preventative thing as well as giving people a helping hand you know when they really are struggling.

Jonathan: Is there any specific criteria for a family to be able to get food from you?

Jeremy: Well what we do is we work with all the front line care organisations that make the assessment. So that means that if people are in a crisis they would go to where they would normally get their first line of support. It may be Social Services, or it may be Citizens Advice Bureau, or it may be a doctor or somebody like that. They would be able to say, look I'm in a difficult situation, I have no money and I've gone to the benefits office and I'm not getting paid until next week, and I've got no food and no money - can you help me? Now often they will say yes we can help you because we can act on your behalf - like the Citizens Advice Bureau do to sort of chase up benefits; but in the meantime here is a food voucher - go around to the Food Bank where they will meet you and treat you nicely and give you the food.

Jonathan: Now I mentioned in the introduction that you've seen demand almost double during the recession; do you think that's a true reflection of the impact of the recession in terms of poverty in the nation?

Jeremy: Definitely. We've seen certainly a 40% uplift in certain areas in terms of people who've been made redundant, unemployed or put on short time working. On top of that a lot of people have been, directly as a result of the recession, have been struggling, because they have seen relative take ups in their wages. Either there's one person working in the family now where there might have been two; or they've been put on shorter hours and lower pay. So it has affected a lot of people. It's obviously not even across the country because there are some towns and cities where it's made a bigger impact than others. So it really has affected people particularly in local industrial areas and in areas where businesses have closed down.

Jonathan: Now in terms of resourcing this, I'm assuming that Trussell Trust supports Food Bank to the largest level; is that correct?

Jeremy: Well what happens is, the Trussell Trust actually owns one Food Bank, the model and our start Food Bank is in Salisbury. What we do is we work with churches and communities across the nation to open a local Food Bank in their town. So for example, if there is a food bank in Wolverhampton, there is a food bank in West Bromwich, but there isn't one yet in Stoke on Trent, but I can work with your churches to do so. That then becomes a local community project: it works using our training and our manual and our support. So this project is guaranteed to work in your community.

Jonathan: And what about, you know the fact that we're such an affluent country in the UK. Why do you think there's a need to give food out, particularly when we have the welfare state?