Chris: No. If there was good access to food for people on low incomes, we wouldn’t be running a food bank.
When we’re closed, I will be able to say yes. And that’s our aim, is that when people have the right access to food, our food bank won’t be needed. And that’s exactly what we want. We want to see an end to the need for food banks. Not just an end to food banks, it’s the actual need for them that needs to end.
Universal Credit [government support scheme for people on low/no income] is set at the lowest the Government thinks people can live on and it’s clearly not enough. Also, we need make sure the farmers are getting the money they need, because you don’t want to have farmers needing a food bank!
Within our network, it is also difficult because we do not have stability of stock that gets donated. This causes problems within the supply.
Alison: It seems to me that when I first got involved in this whole food bank thing about ten years ago, there was no problem getting the food, it was more about the money. But actually, now we have the money and it’s more difficult to get hold of the food.