Church leaders call national fast for UK’s hungry as “End Hunger Fast” campaign planned for Lent
· Faith leaders, food bank campaigners and anti-poverty groups express outrage at rise in UK hunger and call for urgent political action as Cameron weighs into welfare debate
· Letter from 27 Anglican Bishops and Catholic, Quaker and Methodist leaders published today announces support for campaign on welfare, wages and food poverty [1]
· End Hunger Fast launches March 5th (Ash Wednesday) and will be mobilising thousands for a national day of fasting in sympathy with half a million hungry Britons.
Just as David Cameron announces that changes to welfare which have left hundreds of thousands hungry is part of his “moral mission” a new national grassroots campaign, End Hunger Fast, was launched today.
Naming this a “national crisis” the letter, published in today’s Mirror, from 40 senior faith leaders from all the major Christian denominations including 24 Church of England Bishops, further ramped up the pressure on the UK Government to act on the growing hunger crisis in Britain.
Food banks around the UK are reporting that the number of people in need is rising to crisis point as the poorest miss out on the economic recovery. Over half a million people have received three days’ emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks in the UK since last Easter. Meanwhile hospital admissions for malnutrition have almost doubled, to 5,500.
The letter explains “We often hear talk of hard choices. Surely few can be harder than that faced by the tens of thousands of older people who must “heat or eat” each winter, harder than those faced by families whose wages have stayed flat while food prices have gone up 30% in just five years.”
As Cameron weighs into the welfare debate the letter is quite clear on the point “Yet beyond even this we must, as a society, face up to the fact that over half of people using foodbanks have been put in that situation by cut backs to and failures in the benefit system, whether it be payment delays or punitive sanctions.”
The letter is just the first step of a response to rising hunger from food bank volunteers, church groups and poverty activists supporting End Hunger Fast. The grassroots campaign will bring people from across the country together to call on the Government to meet its duty of care to UK citizens. It calls for immediate action on welfare, wages and food markets, three of the biggest contributors to the hunger crisis.
Supporting church groups, many of whom are also involved with running food banks plan to sign up thousands of supporters for a national day of fasting on April 4th. Plans for the March 5th launch will include:
- The release of new polling data showing the strength of public support for the campaign.
- A ‘Britain Isn’t Eating’ ad campaign from Church Action on Poverty
- A fasting relay, with forty high profile faith leaders, celebrities and food bank volunteers passing a fasting baton day by day.
- A vigil outside Westminster, which plans to bring Government ministers face to face with the realities of hunger
Chris Mould, Chairman of The Trussell Trust – the charity which runs a network of 400 foodbanks says:
“That hundreds of thousands of men, women and children living in the seventh richest country in the world are being forced to seek help simply in order to eat is unacceptable.
“In January 2014 alone Trussell Trust foodbanks gave three days’ food to 85,775 people, including 30,670 children. Some have gone without food for days.
“The foodbank debate should not be about party politics, it should be about recognising the reality of what’s happening right now in our nation, listening to the voices of the people who struggle to feed their families.
“We need to wake up to the hunger on our doorsteps, and ask urgent, in depth questions about why this is happening and then be brave enough to take action to stop it. We’d urge people to add their voice to the call to end hunger, fast.”
Keith Hebden, End Hunger Fast campaign spokesman and Parish Priest for Mansfield said:
“All kinds of circumstances push people to the edges of society where they now face a triple whammy of welfare cuts, wage stagnation, and food price rises. The Government is failing in its duty of care to provide basic safety net for its own citizens.
“We must reconsider urgently the society we are becoming; the hunger we permit. For David Cameron to defend what is happening in the welfare system as a part of his “moral mission”, when the reality is that hundreds of thousands of Britains have been left hungry is truly shocking”
“”We respect the Prime Ministers sense of moral purpose. That’s exactly why we’re inviting to come and see for himself the foodbanks operating in places like Mansfield, for him to join us in a national day of fasting and reflection on April the 4th, and ultimately asking him to act to prevent the rise of hunger.”
“My hope is that others will join us and fast for a day, a week, or as they feel able, in sympathy with the half a million Britions who go hungry each day.”
“This isn’t just about welfare. Ever more people are attending our foodbank and others across the country who are in work. The simple fact is that more and more families are just one unexpected bill from empty cupboards. Government must act.”
Andrew Hemming says:
February 20, 2014 at 12:57 pm -
What exactly is it you want the government to do. Is it simply that you want them to increase the safety net of social welfare so that no one need go hungry? Or do you want them to offer more imaginative ways of accessing the funds for people to pay for their own food? (Guaranteed job for anyone who wants to work, guaranteed to be available and within their capabilities.)
What are you asking us to do to show the government that we are earnest in this demand. Should we all send the government donations representing the additional tax we are prepared to pay for delivering whatever the solution is?
I really want us to have a society where no one need go hungry, or have to apply to a food back to eat. I believe we who have sufficient have a responsibility for those who do not have enough, even for the basics. I want the government to do something about this, but I feel we have a responsibility to tell the government what we expect and what we are prepared to sacrifice to provide it. ‘They must do something’ is abdication.
Silvia Vousden says:
February 23, 2014 at 11:18 am -
What you are trying to imply is that the money is not there and that solutions are not available without additional contributions from an already overburdened public. But the money is there, in the form of unnecessary tax cuts for the rich, the £200 billion lost to the Treasury from tax fraud and evasion that could be more aggressively pursued by the Government and the £97 billion that could be saved by scrapping Trident. Since the banks were bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of £85 billion (an amount that would have paid for the running costs of the NHS for 10 years, even allowing for inflation at its current rate), those banks have paid bonuses to themselves of £91 billion. The privatised rail companies receive more in subsidies per year than the entire cost of unemployment benefit for that same year. I thought privatisation was supposed to mean that taxpayer’s money was supposed to be saved, not given to the private companies to boost their investor’s dividend. Austerity measures are an idealogical policy deliberately designed to denigrate, dehumanise and demean the poor and disabled. They are a punishment on the working poor for a crime they did not commit. The fraudsters and conmen in the banking elite have escaped responsibility for the actions that lead to the financial crash, and this Government has laid the blame on those least able to defend themselves. If they so wished they could reinstate full housing and council tax benefits, stop sanctions targets and leave assessments for those too disabled or ill to work to the GP’s and doctors who know and treat their patients. There is plenty of money for tax cuts and war, there is no need for the Government to pursue their current policies of ‘austerity’, only the political will to change them.
Palden Dorje says:
February 20, 2014 at 2:59 pm -
This is such a wonderful initiative and I have pledged to fast on 4th April. I witness the affects of the benefit cuts and poverty through my job and have been inspired to collect food donations within my workplace and donate them to our local food banks.
Its criminal that people should not have enough to eat whilst the rest of society are throwing food away and local councils are supplying households with food bins!
This Government spouts statistics to justify their actions but we all know statistics are meaningless and can be manipulated to mean whatever they wish. The media are persecuting those who claim benefits despite the fact it is an entitlement and setting the public against one another…divide and conquer??
I hope the nation gets behind this campaign to highlight the plight of the poorest amongst us…this is the 21st century!! not the days of the workhouses!
Silvia Vousden says:
February 23, 2014 at 11:34 am -
By the way, Jesus did not say on Mount Sinai “I can’t feed these 5,000 people, it would create dependency”, He fed them all, and had plenty left. The Lord provides enough food to feed the world twice, it is only the actions of a few people bent on making huge profits that means others go hungry. I think we should all start growing our own food wherever we can, and sharing it amongst ourselves. We could call it the Abundance Project. If every church group co-ordinates a planting project so that each member that can do so plants a fruit tree in their garden, they could share the produce amongst themselves and the wider community. Why have useless lawns when we could all grow food?
tony hodgson says:
February 28, 2014 at 11:58 pm -
I think this is a splendid initiative. It would be even more helpful to know where exactly we should direct our money when we fast on April 4th or at any other time and approximately how much you would like us to give ,depending of course on our ability
TommyGee says:
March 1, 2014 at 12:34 pm -
It is frustrating to be somewhat immobile and in ones 89 th year and not able to play a more active role in “politics.” I endeavour to influence both family and friends to focus their compassion on those who suffer, whether it is in the near East or Europe. We have so many self interested leaders who appear to lack compassion . The pain falls on the poor and powerless, and the gain swells the burgeoning wealth of these in control: dictators, generals, presidents, oligarchs,,politicians, financiers, bankers, speculators, hedge funders, placemen, Lords, landowners, and bureaucrats especially those who pass through the revolving door. There are very few at the helm today who follow Jesus, who command respect and provide role models for those who will follow on. We must thank God for the new leaders of the C of E and the RC chruches, and for the dogged persistence of the Society of Friends, and for all those charities and volunteers especially ideaIsitic youth who try to make up for the shortcomings and failings of their fellows beings.
The task ahead is enormous. We must use the tools of modern communication,pace the Arab Spring , to change the world.. We must also be role models to influence all those who know us.
tom norton says:
March 3, 2014 at 4:33 pm -
I call upon Ian Duncan Smith to resign.
I would also urge that, failing that, the Pope excommunicates him from the communion of the Roman Catholic Churc h.