Chris Mould, who set up the Trussell Trust which works to empower local communities to combat poverty and exclusion through a network of foodbanks, featured in a Guardian interview yesterday:
'Mould is proud of Trussell's growth as a testament to the soundness of its franchise design, and the commitment of the volunteers who run the food banks. But he is uncomfortable with the underlying misery that has spurred that expansion – the "massive change in the number of people in the UK who are living very vulnerable lives, relative to the lives they used to live".
The growth of Trussell food banks also shines an uncomfortable light on the state's retreat from welfare, and the failures and cruelty of the parts of the safety net that remain. The charity's data shows that its expanding client base is increasingly low-paid working families who can't make ends meet. They are people impoverished by benefit delays and sanctions, or those refused crisis loans. There is a surge in demand during school holidays, when free school meals are not available.'
St John's Seven Kings collected harvest goods for the Redbridge foodbank during our Harvest Festival last Sunday and these were delivered yesterday to the foodbank, which is run excellently by Kings Church in Ilford. The article above from today's Ilford Recorder also flags up the current need for such church initiatives.
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Philip Bailey - God Is Love.
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