Cutting an emergency service in half will only make life worse for people in crisis

Share this:
Contents of food parcel

Trussell Trust Chairman Chris Mould has warned that ‘cutting an emergency service in half will only make life worse for people in crisis’ after think tank Demos made an extraordinary call to replace half of the UK’s foodbanks with community supermarkets by 2020.

The report, which seeks to find solutions to UK food poverty, displays a misunderstanding of how foodbanks operate and also seriously misrepresents Trussell Trust figures and what they show.

The Trussell Trust agrees that we need to find ways to stop so many people facing food poverty, and welcomes Demos’ interest in this area, but replacing foodbanks with community supermarkets is not the solution – it is illogical and a surprising suggestion from a leading think tank.

The Trussell Trust supports Demos’ call for greater research into food poverty, solutions to chronic food insecurity and innovative thinking around reducing food waste. We’re disappointed that in writing their report Demos did not speak to us to find out how our foodbanks operate, what our figures show or what we perceive the key drivers of foodbank use to be. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss Demos’ report with them.

→ Read the full Trussell Trust response to the ‘British Aisles’ report (PDF)