Food Banks

Debate between Emma Lewell-Buck and Iain McKenzie

Wednesday 17th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

I am absolutely outraged that people are going hungry in one of the richest countries in the world. We have nearly 1 million people attending food banks and over 13 million, including children, the disabled and elderly, living in poverty. Worse still, a high percentage of those 13 million people are in work, working day-in and day-out, with low pay and rising living costs.

Members will know that I was part of the all-party parliamentary group inquiry team that spent most of this year touring the country taking evidence from charities and food bank users, and also know that I sit on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which is holding an inquiry into food security. While this does not make me an expert, it does mean I have a broad knowledge of the growing hunger problem this country faces and the causes of it.

[Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab)]

Has my hon. Friend seen in her constituency as much as I have seen in my Inverclyde constituency, the distribution not only of food, but of power cards to enable people to cook the food that has been distributed to them?

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

What I have seen is an increase in the number of soup kitchens in my constituency, because people do not have the equipment in their homes to cook any food.

No matter where in the country we took evidence, we heard the same stories time and again. People were using food banks because of poverty pay, welfare and benefit changes, unfair sanctions and benefit delays.