LONDON (UK) – British food banks have been witnessing more needy families come for their support due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vilma Tunylaite, 40, queuing at a food bank in southwest London, said, “I was working part-time as a cleaner for evenings, and then when COVID started, we had to quit because everything was closed and our offices, they’re not opening until 2021 because people can work from home.”
“And me, they don’t need me now.”
As per the latest official figures last month, Britain’s unemployment rate had risen to 4.8%, with employers laying off a record number of staff in the third quarter.
The Bank of England has predicted the jobless rate would increase to nearly 8% by the middle of next year, in spite of the government extension of an emergency jobs subsidy programme until the end of March.
The Trussell Trust, which has more than 1,300 food bank centres across Britain under its ambit, says 1.2 million food parcels were provided between April and September.
It forecasts there will be a 61% increase in food parcels that would be of requirement across its network from October to December, which could be equal to six parcels given out every minute.
Alexander Shahid Khan, a banker who volunteers at a food bank in London, said, “If you look at what’s happened over the last seven months, the queues have got significantly longer, the nature of the guests who are queuing up … it’s changed to families as well as those who were living on the streets.”
“So you can definitely see that the effects of COVID has meant there’s a lot of people suffering from income and food poverty at the moment.”
A government spokeswoman said they had announced a 400 million pound support package to come to the aid for the needy during the winter and beyond, including millions for food aid charities.
“The ideal would be for the government obviously to up everybody’s payment that they get every week to a reasonable amount where they don’t have to then seek help from food banks,” said Sahar Beg, chief executive of the Tooting Community Kitchen.
“I can’t make a difference there. The only thing I can do is being here to help where we can.”
