Trussell Trust: time to close all food banks

Trussell Trust: time to close all food banks

There are about 1,200 food banks in their network – but the Trussell Trust wants rid of them all.

That will be Rev Jessica Foster’s message to visitors at CRE National 2022 (11am, Tue 11 Oct). Jessica, head of church engagement at the trust, will encourage Christians to join the call for an end to the need for food banks and the poverty which has led to their necessity.

‘We support about two thirds of the food banks in the UK to provide a minimum of three-days’ nutritionally-balanced emergency food for people in crisis,’ she said. ‘It is time for a change and that will only be possible as we raise our voices together.’

With more than 14 million people in the UK living below the poverty line, she will point to the need for communities to challenge the structural issues that lock people into poverty – and campaign for change.

The trust was founded by Carol and Paddy Henderson in 1997 using a legacy left by Carol’s mother, Betty Trussell. The first projects focused on improving conditions for more than 60 children sleeping at the Central Railway Station in Bulgaria. In 2000, Paddy received a call from a mother in Salisbury who faced sending her children to bed hungry. Paddy investigated data on poverty and deprivation in the UK and started Salisbury Foodbank in his garden shed, providing three-days’ emergency food to local people in crisis. The food bank model spread rapidly through church networks.

More than 20 years later, the trust supports a network of food banks across the UK, supported by thousands of volunteers. Each provides emergency food to people in crisis, and additional support to help tackle the root causes which sweep people into poverty.

‘We know it takes more than food to end hunger so we bring together the experiences of food banks in our network, and their communities, to challenge the structural economic issues that lock people in poverty,’ said Jessica Foster (pictured). ‘We campaign for change to end hunger and poverty in the UK so food banks can be resigned to the history books.’

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