Harvest Food Collection – Plight Of Our Community

Times are hard, and this is especially true for families with children. Despite changes in government, the two child policy, which is designed to punish poor families from having more than two children, and the unjust benefits cap, ensure that 1 in 3 children in our borough are kept in poverty. Croydon North, where our kitchen is located, is the worst hit with 36.5% of its children forced to live in poverty. Most of those children – over two thirds – are in families with jobs – wages are so low compared to the cost of living that they are still in poverty! We have people working in the same supermarkets that boast how they are helping fight hunger by donating to food banks, coming to our kitchen because their wages are kept so low they cant afford to feed their families. On top of that the Mayor has just announced another maximum allowed by law increase in Council Tax, adding up to a 26.7% increase in just two years, whilst at the same time threatening legal action to close down Nightwatch – the charity feeding the homeless in Croydon every night.

Our community is suffering, at the kitchen the lines of guests needing food is increasing each week. A couple of weeks ago when I was going through the queue giving out tickets one woman, clutching her ticket with both hands , looked up and thanked me for the ticket then whispered “you don’t realise but you are keeping me alive”. Its not the first time I have heard this. It’s something no one should have to say in the fifth richest country. The idea that the meagre food we provide stands between life and death for someone in our community is sickening, the right to food is a human right the state is obligated to fulfill.