Article by Jane Stone
Food; is it something we take for granted, something we expect to have because of it being vital to living? I'm sure a lot of people remember the 'saying waste not want not' or 'children in poor countries would love to have a small portion of what you have, many of them don't even get that much'. Picture from Moray FoodBank Facebook Page
But we are missing what should be a problem being dealt with; that people from our country, one of the richest in the world has people homeless and hungry on our streets, some living in homes with no spare income for food.
The food banks were introduced to help solve this problem; but surely the Food Bank should be a short term fix, helping people temporarily until they are able to support themselves?
When put to the public 5 out of 8 people (Survey was taken in the Elgin area out of 64 people) did not know that there was a Food Bank in Elgin and their main answers on what it was for was 'it gives out food'; but is that all it does. General awareness of this underlying problem faced by many, even in our local area is public knowledge; albeit not that well known. The Food Bank is a registered Charity that supports hundreds of people in the area.
The first Food Bank that was set up in Europe was in 1984; the Uk not setting up a Food Bank until 1996 after a couple working for a UN feeding programme at the time, found a 14-year-old mother and her child living at Central Railway Station. In 2004 a charity called The Trussel Trust had two Food Banks and which then grew to have over 420 which in 2013 supplied 913,138 people three days emergency meals. From 2008 following a financial crisis, Food Banks became more important; a need for them again increasing in 2010.
"The Trussell Trust runs a network of over 400 foodbanks, giving emergency food and support to people in crisis across the UK, where thirteen million people live below the poverty line. In the last year we gave 1,109,309 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis." - Link to Charity page
As it stands at present, what are the causes; is it: Council budget cuts, redundancy, unexpected disasters, bad budgeting and being Homeless? In all honesty, there will be hundreds of reasons though, most will boil down to money, or more accurately a lack of money. Either way, the people who rely upon the Food Banks can't get the food they need to survive unless at a charity.
The Food Banks rely on donations from the public and stores, their organisation is non-profit and as they are run by volunteers. Many of these volunteers diversify completing all sorts of jobs and taking initiative in their work; some have specific roles such as drivers that pick up the food donations from the drop boxes.
Here is a new flyer that has been created, though, it details what is happening and the plans in the "pipeline". Soon to be in effect to help the people around us that suffer in crisis and help them recover quickly and slip back into their normal routines and get their lives back on track. These Community Larders are primarily stocked by supermarkets and have started within some of the homeless units.
Back on track?
The Food Bank doesn't just hand out food, they offer advice and can help direct people to the appropriate places to help them deal with their problems whether its financial advice to a short-term crisis that has set the family back money-wise.
Elgin has a Food Bank, one of many in the UK; and has had one for more than 3 years. They have drop boxes in Schools, Churches and Supermarkets to name but a few. These organisations volunteer to house a collection box, where most of the food is taken to the Food Bank to distributed out to the people in need.
The current Volunteer Development Officer started at the Food Bank in July of 2016, helping the volunteers with pick-ups and other duties that they perform on a daily basis. There are roughly 30 volunteers helping out at the Elgin Food Bank, though they have the "capacity for a lot more people to volunteer". Volunteering isn't full time either as you can do one or two hours a week to help out if need be to fit into your schedule or everyday routine.
They have had a few fundraising events: such as 40p for 40 days of lent, where for 40 days people put away 40p and this was done through Gift Aid, and in Kinloss (May) a group of Choirs will be performing in order to fundraise for the Food Bank.
They have also been chosen as Charity of the Year by Moray Business Women; in 2015/16, the Elgin Food Bank supported over 1800 people, 29% of them being children.
Volunteering doesn't just help those that it aims to, it also provides life skills, social interaction, promotes teamwork, communication and confidence building in the Volunteers. It benefits the community and can make a real difference, the Volunteers are flexible helping when they can.
When people need the Food Bank there is a considerable list of Organisations that can put people forwards for a referral; such as from your GP, Social work or people can self-refer themselves by coming in off the street for food (though self-referral is not very common).
Talking to local Historian living in Lossiemouth, he stated that when he was young he couldn't remember any Food Banks in the area; saying they were a;
From all of the reasons that could lead to someone needing the aid of the Food Bank, Low Income is the most common reason and most are short term.
Those that wish to Volunteer can fill out a simple Volunteering application which can be seen in the two images below. They can pop into the Food Bank for a copy if they would like one.
Food; is it something we take for granted, something we expect to have because of it being vital to living? I'm sure a lot of people remember the 'saying waste not want not' or 'children in poor countries would love to have a small portion of what you have, many of them don't even get that much'. Picture from Moray FoodBank Facebook Page
But we are missing what should be a problem being dealt with; that people from our country, one of the richest in the world has people homeless and hungry on our streets, some living in homes with no spare income for food.
The food banks were introduced to help solve this problem; but surely the Food Bank should be a short term fix, helping people temporarily until they are able to support themselves?
When put to the public 5 out of 8 people (Survey was taken in the Elgin area out of 64 people) did not know that there was a Food Bank in Elgin and their main answers on what it was for was 'it gives out food'; but is that all it does. General awareness of this underlying problem faced by many, even in our local area is public knowledge; albeit not that well known. The Food Bank is a registered Charity that supports hundreds of people in the area.
The first Food Bank that was set up in Europe was in 1984; the Uk not setting up a Food Bank until 1996 after a couple working for a UN feeding programme at the time, found a 14-year-old mother and her child living at Central Railway Station. In 2004 a charity called The Trussel Trust had two Food Banks and which then grew to have over 420 which in 2013 supplied 913,138 people three days emergency meals. From 2008 following a financial crisis, Food Banks became more important; a need for them again increasing in 2010.
"The Trussell Trust runs a network of over 400 foodbanks, giving emergency food and support to people in crisis across the UK, where thirteen million people live below the poverty line. In the last year we gave 1,109,309 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis." - Link to Charity page
As it stands at present, what are the causes; is it: Council budget cuts, redundancy, unexpected disasters, bad budgeting and being Homeless? In all honesty, there will be hundreds of reasons though, most will boil down to money, or more accurately a lack of money. Either way, the people who rely upon the Food Banks can't get the food they need to survive unless at a charity.
The Food Banks rely on donations from the public and stores, their organisation is non-profit and as they are run by volunteers. Many of these volunteers diversify completing all sorts of jobs and taking initiative in their work; some have specific roles such as drivers that pick up the food donations from the drop boxes.
Back on track?
The Food Bank doesn't just hand out food, they offer advice and can help direct people to the appropriate places to help them deal with their problems whether its financial advice to a short-term crisis that has set the family back money-wise.
"Our hope is that we can point them in the right direction for support"
Elgin has a Food Bank, one of many in the UK; and has had one for more than 3 years. They have drop boxes in Schools, Churches and Supermarkets to name but a few. These organisations volunteer to house a collection box, where most of the food is taken to the Food Bank to distributed out to the people in need.
The current Volunteer Development Officer started at the Food Bank in July of 2016, helping the volunteers with pick-ups and other duties that they perform on a daily basis. There are roughly 30 volunteers helping out at the Elgin Food Bank, though they have the "capacity for a lot more people to volunteer". Volunteering isn't full time either as you can do one or two hours a week to help out if need be to fit into your schedule or everyday routine.
They have had a few fundraising events: such as 40p for 40 days of lent, where for 40 days people put away 40p and this was done through Gift Aid, and in Kinloss (May) a group of Choirs will be performing in order to fundraise for the Food Bank.
They have also been chosen as Charity of the Year by Moray Business Women; in 2015/16, the Elgin Food Bank supported over 1800 people, 29% of them being children.
Volunteering doesn't just help those that it aims to, it also provides life skills, social interaction, promotes teamwork, communication and confidence building in the Volunteers. It benefits the community and can make a real difference, the Volunteers are flexible helping when they can.
When people need the Food Bank there is a considerable list of Organisations that can put people forwards for a referral; such as from your GP, Social work or people can self-refer themselves by coming in off the street for food (though self-referral is not very common).
"It doesn't make us thrilled to have to give out so much food"
Talking to local Historian living in Lossiemouth, he stated that when he was young he couldn't remember any Food Banks in the area; saying they were a;
"Disgrace to Britain; we shouldn't need them, the problem should have never gotten so bad as to require such measures".He spoke about the Food Bank helping those that need food, those that have no income or have been made redundant from the Fishing industry, Oil Industry, and through the redundancies, their contractors that were working for the Industry are no longer needed. He also spoke of the change in the Benefits system, first, it was too large and people took advantage of that fact, then it was cut far too much leaving a high percentage of people with considerably less money than they had ever lived on to try and buy food. While speaking so some people on the streets, there was a general consensus on the budget cuts of the council and the implications of this to everyday life. Even if these are some reasons to the problem, surely there will be hundreds of others.
From all of the reasons that could lead to someone needing the aid of the Food Bank, Low Income is the most common reason and most are short term.
"If they're needed, they're needed"A Volunteer with The Red Cross, "Disgrace that there is poverty in Elgin; Inverness has had a Food Bank for years, shouldn't need one in somewhere as small as Elgin". The charities have relationships between them that are used to help keep them afloat, such as The Red Cross in Elgin gives spare bags to the Food Bank for Food, and the Food Bank has a drop box for toiletries and such that when there are some that they can't use they give them to other local charities.
Those that wish to Volunteer can fill out a simple Volunteering application which can be seen in the two images below. They can pop into the Food Bank for a copy if they would like one.
The Food Bank has a team of friendly and smiling volunteers that "give up some of their time to help others"So in short, this short term solution helps people not just in our area but thanks to many positioned around Britain, they help thousands of people. And hopefully, they will disappear in the future, not from people not donating but with the people no longer needing them. A lot of people helped by giving their opinions and time for this article and our team would like to thank them for their time and patience.
Comments
Post a Comment