CHILDREN in Redditch are going to school hungry as thousands of people in the town struggle to make ends meet.
That’s the verdict of local charity Acts of Kindness whose trustees say since they opened the town’s food bank in 2013 they’ve fed more than 6,000 people.
And the charity’s Reverend Robin Baker fears it is the children who are really suffering.
“So many children are being affected by this they are developing mental health problems,” he said.
Part of the problem he says is that parents are often too proud to admit they need help until it is too late.
“By the time they get to us, often they are absolutely distraught because they’ve been trying so hard to manage for so long,” he added.
The charity has now launched a new scheme under the national poverty chairty Turn2Us, a new initiative aimed at eradicating poverty.
“It is estimated that £13billion in benefits go unclaimed each year,” said Rev Baker.
“Turn2Us is an online service where clients input their details and will receive a print-out of what they are entitled to.”
Charity trustee Richard Sturdey said: “This way we can help more people. It’s a means of enabling them to stand on their own two feet and hopefully get to the root of issue.”
The Rev Baker said more people than ever were struggling to make ends meet: “The dots in Redditch just don’t join up any more.
“The change to Universal Benefit has had an enormous impact,” he said. “Routinely people have been without benefits for six weeks – it assumes an awful lot of time for people to manage.
“And what we provide is not unhindered food but crisis management.”
The people affected aren’t the most obvious or visible either he says.
“More people are working in this town but the problem is zero hour contracts. Even with two people working if anything comes along or crops up they could be in trouble.”
And he dismisses any idea that the Food Bank is a soft touch.
“You can’t just turn up and receive food, you have to go through a referral agency who will give you a voucher. You get one or two who have tried to bend the rules but the vast majority are in dire need,” he said.
Turn2Us is available online at https://www.turn2us.org.uk/ or from a food bank referral agency or the Oasis Christian Centre.
