Feeding Britain on food poverty and hunger report

CSAN (Caritas Social Action Network) is the domestic social action arm of the Catholic Church in England and Wales

Feeding Britain, set up by MPs and Peers for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty in 2014, has published its latest report on hunger and poverty in the UK. The report gathered evidence and recommendations from over 100 NGOs, faith groups, civil society and community groups such as food banks.

Feeding Britain call for immediate intervention to address the root causes of food poverty and hunger as reliance on foodbanks continues to grow in the United Kingdom.

Dr Philip McCarthy, Chief Executive Officer of Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN), commented on the report: “It is a sad reality that one year on from Feeding Britain’s initial report into hunger and food poverty, we are little closer to tackling these problems. Children are still waking up hungry and still going to school hungry.

As CSAN has commented in the past, the problem of child hunger escalates during school holidays as families struggle with the costs of providing extra meals every day. We therefore warmly welcome the report’s recommendation for a national programme targeted at eliminating child hunger during the school holidays and hope the Government act to tackle this crisis.”

Normandie Wragg, Chief Executive of Nugent Care and CSAN member, said: “Our clients at Nugent Care often have real difficulty trying to navigate the complex benefit system, which often leads to unnecessary delays, errors and benefit sanctions. The consequence if often severe for our clients who will, as a result, regularly rely on us for food parcels and essentials.

"Our staff do all they can to help with claims, but are prevented from doing so due to red tape. We are pleased the report took forward our recommendation for establishing a dedicated line for charities to call on behalf of a claimant; this will make a huge difference to client’s lives and prevent unnecessary hardship”.