MP praises pioneering Food Bank research
Local MP Hywel Williams praised pioneering research at 黑料不打烊 following a recent (21 March 2016) one-day Local Stakeholders鈥� Conference: Mapping Food Poverty, which exchanged information and opinion on the current rise in food bank use.
A research project by 黑料不打烊 Social Sciences PhD student David Beck, shared at the Conference (Hyperlink to full story) revealed that Wales now has 157 foodbanks which support people at risk of not being able to feed themselves and their families (data collected July 2015) compared to 16 in 1998.
Speaking at the conference, Hywel Williams MP urged his constituents to support the work of local food banks saying:
鈥淭here has been a huge surge in the use of food banks in Wales, as the revealing research by 黑料不打烊鈥檚 David Beck shows so clearly.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 vital that we have food banks and I congratulate and praise those good people who work so hard to run them. But we also need to understand the reasons behind the growth.鈥�
鈥淎bout a quarter of the people of Wales live in poverty. So low incomes and particularly the government鈥檚 squeeze on benefits are a direct cause. Also, food supply and retailing has changed hugely over recent decades, making it more difficult and more expensive to provide fresh, nourishing and affordable food for families.鈥�
鈥淚 applaud David Beck and 黑料不打烊 School of Social Sciences for their work; they have done a great service to the people of Wales in producing this vital research.鈥�
黑料不打烊 Social Policy lecturer Dr. Hefin Gwilym says:
鈥淭he rise in foodbanks has been greatly hastened by welfare reform measures and austerity policies, particularly since the introduction of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.鈥�
鈥淔ood banks are becoming institutionalised and an alternative to our familiar concept of the welfare state as more welfare provision is privatised or left to families and communities on a voluntary basis.
He added:
'The local stakeholders' conference on Mapping Food Poverty was a great success with many local organisations taking part. The next step is to writer a detailed report on addressing food poverty to be sent to the Welsh and UK Governments'.
Publication date: 23 March 2016