Last week, the latest Feeding Britain report, which Emma and the other members of the inquiry team co-authored, was launched by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger.
The report, backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, calls on the Government to end hunger in the UK. It is described as a blueprint to end the scandal of food poverty and has made over 60 recommendations, including a tax on sugary drinks to fund school holiday food projects, prompter payment of benefits, trained budget advisers to work at food banks, and for ministers to stop supermarkets and their suppliers throwing away edible food.
Despite huge amounts of work by charities around the UK, the number of people relying on food parcels remains at a level unseen since World War Two, and there is a shocking amount of food waste from retailers and manufacturers. The report examines the reasons for this and suggests a strategy to deal with these problems. If the Government were to take up the Feeding Britain recommendations, they would be moving towards abolishing hunger.
The Government need to act, this is the second Feeding Britain report. After last December’s report, the Prime Minster said he would take seriously the inquiry team’s recommendations to end hunger. Yet instead, in 12 months we have seen up to three new food banks opening per week, 4.7 million people living in food poverty, and up to 13.2 million people living in poverty overall, over half of whom are in work. All of the evidence points to increased food bank usage and poverty being a direct result of the Government’s welfare reforms and inaction on poverty pay.
This Government, and particularly Iain Duncan Smith, should hang their heads in shame at the scandal that has developed on their watch.
Speaking at the event, Emma said:
“I am not going to focus on what’s in our report, others have already done that. I am instead going to talk about what is missing. Namely Government action from the Department for Work and Pensions.
Yes, I know Government can’t be the only players in solving hunger but they do need to, and must, play a part.
A quick glance at our outcomes shows that it is consistently the Government outcomes aimed at the Department for Work and Pensions where there has been little progress, nor is there likely to be. Out of 29 recommendations aimed at them, they have accepted a pitiful 4.
This is because they refuse to accept what we in this room all know is glaringly obvious: people are going hungry under their watch because of their policies.
It was 12 months ago when we launched our feeding Britain report. I stood in front of you all then and spoke about a harsh and punitive regime that now operates in the welfare state. One that no longer talks to people about their circumstances or tries to understand their hardship but sanctions them without hesitation, cuts them off from any means of financial support without a care, and leaves people waiting for months without any money at all.
Sadly I could deliver exactly the same speech now because the reality is that whilst charities, faith organisations and others have all responded favourably to our call, the Government remains stubbornly and heartlessly steadfast that food bank use is not linked to the welfare state.
Our report last year, our recent report you have today, and the Work and Pensions Select Committee inquiry on benefit delivery all point to Government welfare reforms as being the primary driver to food banks.
Yet still from the department- a deafening silence.
Last year when I spoke I was angry. I am still angry but, after the General Election, I feel despair as well, and I am not the only one. The thousands who have turned to food banks, the thousands of people waiting for their benefits, the thousands who have been sanctioned, the people who have lost loved ones who have taken their own lives or passed away because they have wrongly been found fit for work and simply had no money at all to live on, they are also in despair.
This remains the biggest outrage and scandal of our time yet it continues to be met with gross inaction from this Government.
I remain proud to be part of Feeding Britain. I am proud of the people in this room who are working hard to plug the gap left by our uncaring state. I am in constant admiration of the brave and strong people who are willing to come forward and tell their stories of hunger and poverty. I want them to all know they have not told their stories in vain because it’s for people like them that I will never stop pushing the Government for change, and why – until people are no longer going hungry in our country – Feeding Britain’s work will go on.”
Speaking after the event, Emma said:
“It is so disappointing that 12 months on we have seen limited actions from the Government. The Prime Minister said last year he would take our recommendations and report seriously. His inaction goes to prove just how little he and his Government care about those who are going hungry in our country.”