Desperate and starving, forced to queue outside in the rain, and trudging home with your allotted groceries - this was one man’s experience of food poverty in Manchester.
Lewey Hellewell, 42, was forced to turn to food banks after he was made redundant from his job in hospitality in 2018. He distinctly remembers how he found himself in a position he never anticipated, feeling 'shame' and 'desperation' as he was forced to stand in line for his food. He realised how ‘undignified’ the experience felt, and has since set out to change this for others in need.
This Christmas, the Manchester Evening News is working with Humans MCR, a food drive providing meals and essential nutritious food across our region, to make sure families don't go hungry this Christmas. Humans MCR are based in Blackley, North Manchester, but work with families and individuals in need across Manchester, Salford, Rochdale, Trafford, and Stockport. The team aim to give 'respect, health, dignity and hope to those in our communities', and provide a number of services to those struggling, including emergency food parcels and a community grocers service.
READ MORE: Help the hungry in Greater Manchester as we launch Christmas campaign to tackle food poverty
"I think the worst part for me was access, so only being able to use a food bank three times a year," he told the M.E.N. "And each time you use it, you get three days worth of food. I just found that totally unbelievable, that if you were really struggling that you could use one food bank to get nine days worth of food support over the course of a year.
"So once you've used your your three referrals at the food bank that's most local to you, then you're branching out you're going further and further and further out. And each time, you're having to walk home with plastic bags of canned food in the rain, because if you had money for the bus then you wouldn't be using the food bank, you would spend that money on groceries.
"It was the queuing outside and the walking home in the rain that I found to be the most undignified aspects of of that entire process."
When he was able to improve his own situation, Lewey turned his attention to helping others benefit in a more dignified way - and so in 2019, Humans MCR was founded. Operating firstly from his one-bedroom flat in Longsight, Lewey turned his living space into a food bank, collecting tins on his bookshelves and stepping over piles of donated food. As the charity grew, they received some funding and were able to open their own space - but in just a matter of months, they were faced with the unprecedented challenge of a national lockdown.
"After starting in November 2019, Covid was a little bit of a slap in the face," Lewey said. "Really, we weren't ready for it. We weren't set up for it.
"But we were used to living on the edge. It's kind of what we do as an organisation, we're always on the edge, and so Covid taught us that we can sit on the edge without having to panic, knowing that will will always get by somehow."
The charity want to transform the experience of using food banks. They opt to deliver food parcels to their people's doorsteps, in an experience that they hope makes it easier for those in need to reach out. They also provide a 'community grocers' service, where those in need can source fresh, good quality food at slashed prices. The aim is to keep people in Greater Manchester eating well, while supporting them out of food poverty.
They work hard to make sure every person using their services is treated with dignity and respect. Their delivery vans are unmarked, to ensure their people's privacy is maintained, and cater to a variety of dietary and cultural needs. Upon referral, people are asked about their access to cooking facilities, so packages can suit the equipment they have available.
Lewey's approach stems from his own experiences. He described the 'shame' he felt after he was made redundant and was eventually forced to turn to food banks.
"I'm a proud Yorkshireman. Such a be in that situation in the first place, I found it really difficult," he said. "It's a rubbish saying but it's that kind of British stiff upper lip. I cooked for as long as I possibly thought I could before it got so desperate that I thought I'm going to have to bite the bullet here."
Lewey recounted how he 'didn't think charity was for him' - a feeling that he knows occupies the minds of many who are in need.
"I didn't think food banks were for me," he said. "I thought they were for people that were experiencing other things. I remember there was a food bank that I went to and there was a Sikh food van outside which was giving out curry and rice. And I remember just sobbing, getting one of these portions.
"Looking back on it, what I think what I was crying about was the shame of the situation, the shame I felt about relying on people I didn't know, to feed me my lunch that day."
While Lewey was eventually able to lift himself out of hunger and stop using food banks, he knows that for many living in food poverty, the issue spans generations. When setting up Humans MCR, his vision was to provide a 'suite' of services that go beyond providing food in the immediate moment, and work to 'break cycles of intergenerational poverty'.
The charity recognises the role education plays in breaking this cycle, and partners with Read Manchester and Manchester Libraries to help provide children with books. "If we can increase the level of education in those children, the less chance there is of them repeating that cycle as they start to leave education," Lewey explained.
"We know that kids having full bellies is vital because they need that to be able to pay attention at school to give them the energy that they need to be able to learn. On top of that what we wanted to make sure was that we were giving people choice, an agency and some control over that charitable process, and to do that in the most dignified way possible."
Since April 2020, the team have delivered over 131,500 meals in Greater Manchester, and saved over 16,000kg of food from going to waste. This Christmas, they're expecting to deliver 300 Xmas hampers, filled with everything a family needs for Christmas dinner, as well as gifts for children and treats for adults. Their work means hundreds of families are able to have a real festive meal this Christmas. But they need help.
Humans receive donations of good food that would otherwise go to waste from Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons, and Fareshare - but as demand grows, they are always in need of more. They welcome food donations, as well as any cash you are able to spare. Here, they are able to make just £1 stretch a long way.
The team here knows all too well how difficult times are at the moment, and want anybody struggling to know that they are here.
"I think shame is what people feel really keenly when they first come to us," he said. "I would beg people to try to not feel that, I know that that's the kind of an empty beg, because it doesn't matter how you say that, people still feel it because we're proud people.
"Your money will provide people with a lifeline - it will give give us the ability to be able to pack and send food out that people want to eat regardless of their dietary or cultural nuance," he explained. "It takes the pressure off. It means that parents can eat themselves as well as feeding their children.
"A £10 donation will give a single adult three to three-and-a-half days of food delivered to their door. But we have never run a donations campaign when we've asked people to donate a specific amount. We can make a pound stretch like there's no tomorrow. So any thing that anyone feels that they can donate, we can use really wisely but we're not forgetting that it's a really difficult time for everyone at the minute.
"So if you can't donate cash, what I would ask you to do is is check us out on social media, share our referral posts, widen our message and make sure that that people know that we exist and know that we are able to support them."
You can donate to the campaign here.
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