The Salvation Army UK and Ireland Territory’s Post

There are 1,200 hospitals in the UK and twice as many foodbanks according to a recent article by Gordon Brown in the Guardian, where he stated that there are more foodbanks than there are public libraries and foodbanks are opening as fast as high street banks have been closing down. As we reach the middle of 2024, with the pandemic over, the food crisis and utility costs crisis continuing to get worse, Gordon Brown states that this is because: • Universal credit is too low for people to be able to afford basics including food, toiletries and heating bills • The household support fund will end this October • Families will be pushed onto universal credit and face deductions for loans to cover the first five weeks on the new benefit scheme For the sake of the children, the UK needs to bring the era of foodbanks to an end, and shield every child from hunger, squalor and poverty. #foodpoverty https://lnkd.in/ecgTK8gZ

'It’s vital to keep hope alive for 2025. People need to be able to do more than hang on by the fingertips. Food bank teams want to see more than a chink of light at the end of the tunnel. They want to see how their emergency services can be made redundant.' Read more in my new year opinion piece for the Big Issue #CashFirst Independent Food Aid Network https://lnkd.in/etWhkgX8

Nearly half of universal credit recipients in the UK have run out of food in the past month, according to a new study by The Trussell Trust. The charity found that 48% of claimants couldn't afford food, and one in five had to use a food bank within the last year. In addition, 46% of respondents are behind on bills or struggling to keep up with payments. The research highlights the inadequacy of universal credit, with claimants being pushed into poverty, debt, and hunger. Food bank managers describe a worsening crisis. I am sure there will be a huge sigh of relief from councils and food projects as the Household Support Fund has been extended for a fifth term, BUT we need longer term solutions and #FoodforHealthnotWealth. FixOurFood FoodWise Leeds @foodladders Jamie Saunders Sonja Woodcock Bradford Council The Trussell Trust Fatima Patel Zest FareShare UK FareShare Yorkshire Rotary Food FoodCycle

Really excited to share these two reports from the brilliant Trussell team! Our proposals for a new Financial Crisis and Resilience Fund to follow the Household Support Fund. We highlight the sorry state of discretionary crisis support in England and the urgent need for the UK government to work with local authorities to put in place a new, permanent and effective system of discretionary, local crisis support in England. We propose: - A new Financial Crisis & Resilience Fund, backed by multi-year, ring-fenced funding of at least £1.25 billion annually. - Work with local authorities to embed the principles of local crisis and resilience schemes to create preventative crisis support systems locally. - These should prioritise cash grants (while keeping flexibility for in kind support where that's genuinely the best solution for individuals). - Goal is to help people weather a short-term crisis or emergency, ensure it doesn't tip people into longer term hardship and connect them with services to address underlying drivers or challenges. - So, crucially, schemes must integrate other local financial support, advice provision and drive the development of a closely co-ordinated system of preventative services. - Update Immigration Rules to allow people with no recourse to public funds to receive crisis support. - Explore options for a new legal duty on local authorities. After a lot of consultation and reflection, we recommend: - Bringing discretionary housing papyments into these schemes (with funding sufficient to cover both aspects) - But separate these discretionary crisis support schemes from support for low income families during the school holidays. Financial pressures due to the lack of free school meal support in the holidays is an essential and predictable household cost. FSM holiday provision is fundamentally a different need to crisis support for one-off or unexpected income shocks, and needs separate funding and solutions. (I'll do another quick post on what that could look like.) We've also published an evidence review that pulls together evidence from across the UK to draw out the learning from all the different approaches that have been tried and changes over recent years. Read both reports here; https://lnkd.in/ev5P5UPP

Shockingly, 1 in 10 Torontonians are relying on food banks this year. Food Banks are charities that are trying to address food insecurity in our city, which has become so normalized that many assume its a government run service. In a country as rich as Canada, this is unacceptable. If you are someone who can afford to buy what you need, it may be easy to ignore the crisis. Until I started donating my time at a local food bank, about a year ago, I had many false ideas about the amount of need, by whom and why. Food Banks Canada is calling on the Federal Government to introduce a Groceries and Essentials Benefit to make sure every person in Canada can afford their basic needs like groceries and rent.   See the link below to sign the petition. Please share this campaign message with program participants and friends to help the campaign grow.   https://lnkd.in/gGu9Pq9a #EndHunger #FoodInsecurity #Toronto

It's about an emergency - charity provided - social support system around #foodinsecurity #poverty #costofliving, and while it's dearly needed, we can't use it to take the government off the hook for sorting out how they organise, fund and deliver social protection and safety measures more generally; how they structure and what they prioritise spendings on in the economy and fiscal space; what kind of a social contract they want to run the country under. It's not even only about the UK, it's systemic and wide-spread.

Sometimes homeless service providers in LA have a hard time staying focused on their mission because they struggle to make payroll each month. Unfortunately, this has been a problem on and off for years. Through the Future Communities Institute (FCI), I’m working to stand up an “LA Working Capital Fund” to fix the problem. The fund would make fast, low-cost, no-interest bridge loans to CBOs in the homeless sector so they can continue to operate while they wait to get paid—usually by government agencies, large organizations, and foundations. Does this issue resonate with you? Want to provide financial oxygen to the service providers who will solve homelessness in LA? If so, drop me a line. If you'd like to hear more about this problem, check out this short video where I lay out the issue to Commissioners Horvath, Barger and Chinchilla (who all understand this is an issue that must be addressed) at the April LAHSA Programs & Contracts Committee meeting.

This contribution is intended to directly support food and beverage workers whose livelihoods have been significantly affected by the fires. The LA Fire Relief grants, which can total up to $1,500 per recipient, will aid individuals who lost their homes, income, or both. https://lnkd.in/gYim6x87

Too often the services are ‘hard to reach’. Food is the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. So more and more people are accessing food banks for the first time (3.1m food parcels in the last year have been distributed by the Trussell Trust). We find that many we meet don’t know what help is available or that they’re entitled to it. All this makes food banks the right spaces for our preventative financial inclusion work - because whatever you think of them, people are there already and they’re doing something right. And this makes them the right place for us to work through cost of living & other money challenges and direct people to more specialist help so that people see not only what support is available, but leave with the knowledge and confidence to access this support. Too often the other services are ‘hard to reach’. Designing services better is important. But so is enabling people to have the confidence and skill and means to reach them. This means we have to reach them where they are already. No one should have to go hungry, live in the dark, lie away worrying about the rent or not be able to feed their children. These quotes shared in the Your Own Place CIC WhatsApp just yesterday sum up beautifully our approach and the impact we strive to have with every relationship. We can only do this work with the help of our funders Norwich Foodbank Saffron Housing Trust Limited Places for People Norfolk County Council #foodbanks #partnership #housing #tenants #communities #money #financialinclusion #homelessness #bills #money

I am excited to share with you the report by our Trussell team: 'A more resilient future: Rebuilding discretionary crisis support in England'. This report sets out Trussell’s recommendations for rebuilding discretionary crisis support in England and has been informed by the learning from our evidence review, ‘What does effective local crisis support look like?’ For people trying to survive on a low income, life events or other financial shocks are more likely to result in hardship. Discretionary crisis support is needed in any system designed to protect against deep financial hardship to provide timely, effective relief and prevent a more sustained crisis. Despite the benefits, discretionary crisis support in England is in a sorry state. Local authority budgets to deliver discretionary support to people facing a financial crisis have not been ring-fenced and have faced significant real-terms cuts over the last decade. In many places, charities and community organisations like food banks are relied upon to fill the gaps in support. A review of the evidence: Trussell has carried out an evidence review to address the question: “What does effective local crisis support look like?” The review took an in-depth look at 38 pieces of evidence, drawing out findings relevant to the UK government and local authorities in England. Alongside this evidence review we have published a report exploring in detail the case for a new, permanent and effective system of discretionary local crisis support in England and our recommendations for delivering this. Key findings and recommendations: Alongside a fit for purpose social security system, people need to have somewhere to turn in a financial crisis or emergency to get cash-first help quickly and connect them to advice and support that can prevent the situation getting worse, building financial resilience. This would help ensure communities can move away from using emergency food to fill the gaps in support because there is a permanent system of effective, dignified and easy to access crisis and resilience support in every area.  Particular thanks to Sumi Rabindrakumar, Beatrice Orchard, Holly Clarkson, Lucy Bence-Wilkins and Keir Vincent-Harris.