A foodbank set up in one of Northumberland's desirable market towns has revealed it has even delivered food parcel to exclusive Ponteland as the cost of living crisis bites.
Sam Gilchrist, who set up West Northumberland Foodbank in 2013, says poverty can be found in some of the most unexpected places, and nearly half of the foodbank's current clients have either not used a food bank for a long time or had never used one before.
The foodbank, which serves the whole of the former Tynedale area from its base in Burn Lane, Hexham, has seen a massive increase in demand for its services - up 100% compared to this time last year.
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And project manager Sam can see no end to demand as rising prices mean more and more families are struggling to make ends meet. And she hit out at Nottinghamshire MP Lee Anderson's suggestion that people use food banks because they are unable to cook and budget properly. Mr Anderson, who represents Ashfield in Parliament, later defended his comments, but his statement in the House of Commons last week has caused an uproar among poverty campaigners, including food writer Jack Monroe.
"I had to watch the clip three times as I just couldn't believe that he was saying," said Sam, who manages a team of around 40 volunteers and four paid staff at the foodbank. "We have seen a huge increase in demand over the last six months due to the Universal Credit uplift ending, the cost of living increase and massive hikes in energy prices. I can assure Lee Anderson that a lack of cooking and budgeting skills is absolutely not the reason for the alarming rise in poverty we are dealing with at our foodbank."
A lot of families in the foodbank's area are struggling with rural poverty, according to Sam. "Our patch covers a very large rural area as well as the towns of Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, and 30% of our deliveries are outside of the main towns. We have even delivered parcels to families in Ponteland, which just shows how far the cost of living crisis is reaching."
Ponteland, famous for its wealthy residents, including past and present Newcastle United footballers, boasts one of the North East's most expensive streets to buy a home, Runneymede Road, where the average selling price was £1,200,000 last year.
"Rural poverty is a big thing in our patch, and brings its own challenges," said Sam. "Families living in very rural areas are much more reliant on small, corner shops, which tend to be more expensive; and the cost to get anywhere is much higher than if you lived closer to or in a town. Lots of families have been just about managing - but the combination of rising costs everywhere, huge energy bill hikes and the loss of the Universal Credit £20 a week uplift have basically plunged them into poverty."
West Northumberland Food Bank, which is part of the Independent Food Aid Network, operates a delivery service from its base, and Sam says the volunteers and staff offer targeted, flexible support and people in need to do not need a referral to access their services.. The foodbank has a policy of trying to support local businesses as well as local families, and tried to support rural retailers if possible.
"During the pandemic, we had to stop our drop-in service and move over to delivery," Sam said. "We've not been able to go back to drop-in because the number of people who are accessing our services is so big, we could not accommodate the number of people in our premises. Instead, the foodbank's two vans are out every day, helping families all over the patch.
"We don't ask for a referral to use our services, and we will support people for as long as we feel they need to be supported. We have around 20 trained helpline staff to take calls, and they will quickly establish if someone is able to claim more benefits than they are doing, for example and what their food and support needs are.
"We will help people for as long as is needed. Less than 20% of our clients are long-term food bank users, and for those people, their situation is very unlikely to change. We don't turn people away. We are aware that we are not solving poverty, we are just putting a sticking plaster over it, but if we can provide food for a household, it means that they money they would have spent on that can be diverted to energy bills or paying off debt.
"I think a lot of people don't realise how much people are existing on if they claim Universal Credit. People are quick to judge, but don't know the figures.
"If you are single and over 25, your payment will be £324 a month. It's so little money. And if your rent is more than the amount allowed for housing, you will have to top up from that £324. I spoke to one woman recently who was having to top up her rent by £150 a month - that left her £174 a month for everything else. That's not enough to live on, even before the cost of living crisis hit. No-one is existing on benefits through choice."
As well as food, WNFB can also help people with energy costs, and have given £49 vouchers to families who have 'self-disconnected' by not topping up their meters because they had no money to do so.
"It's a viscous circle," said Sam. "If you only have £3 in your purse, you can either buy food but don't have the power to cook it, or put it in the meter and go hungry. And that's a very real choice lots of households are having to make. With every small change to welfare law, more people become affected and poverty becomes entrenched. The two children limit for Universal Credit immediately plunged 10,000 families into poverty. And every time there is a change like that, demand for our services goes up."
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