It’s been a busy week for the End Hunger Fast campaign, with our official launch on Ash Wednesday and heaps of activity across the country. Here’s what we got up to last week to End Hunger Fast.
Ash Wednesday
As Trussell Trust released new data revealing the true extent of food bank use across the UK, we began Lent with an appearance outside the Houses of Parliament asking the Government to act now on hunger.
Act now to @endhungerfast! Sign up now at http://t.co/IN7A4xJxvd pic.twitter.com/HGwkgGteb1
— Niall Cooper (@niallcooper1) March 5, 2014
Keith and Simon’s 40 days of fasting
Ash Wednesday also marked the moment that Keith Hebden, Simon Cross and Scott Albrecht all said goodbye to food for an entire 40 days – a brave and powerful act of solidarity with all those in Britain who have no choice but to go hungry.
You can see Keith’s daily fast diary through the End Hunger Fast now:
Birmingham Hunger Hut
Churches and community groups across the UK are taking action to End Hunger Fast.
In Birmingham, faith leaders came together to open the city’s very own hunger hut, a place where people can respond to Britain’s growing hunger crisis.
End Hunger Fast – Campaign Welcome from cofebirmingham on Vimeo.
What’s next?
There’ll be more ways to speak out against hunger this Lent. Thousands will take part in a national day of fasting on 4th April, and soon we’ll be sharing an invitation to come together this Holy Week, united in our plea to see hunger ended.
Together we can End Hunger Fast! Please show you support by sharing this blog following the campaign @endhungerfast and liking End Hunger Fast on Facebook.
lily says:
March 11, 2014 at 4:30 pm -
What on earth is the purpose of a day of fasting for Lent?? That isn’t going to make one iota of difference good or bad. Let’s get real on the question of poverty. and it’s a pity the Bishops aren’t better informed on the subject, The problem will never be solved until the Left stop using poverty as a lash to punish the govt. and start accepting that the bottom line is the profligate Labour govt. who created the economic situation in the first place. There has to be a cross party determined effort to halt immigration, means test benefits including free travel for pensioners, – if one can afford to buy and run a nice car and enjoy foreign hols. etc. then paying a bus fare is quite affordable also – separate those who milk the system, because it is easy, from those who are truly sick and unable to work or who have, through no fault of their own, lost their employment. There was a time when feeding the family was a priority but now it seems that everything else comes first and food is an afterthought., posh T.Vs, smart phones, Ipads/pods and other high tech luxuries, smoking, alcohol, fast food and skyeT.V. are far morer important. So much of what I read is motivated by pure envy and greed, Instead of getting off their bottoms so many folk just bleat about what others have got. and when food banks exist they generate a market, why buy your food if someone else will provide it for you. Someone I know personally who complains about their low pay, and yes it isn’t great, can still afford to run a car and take the family out for day trips to the coast and to large shopping malls, just to give the baby somewhere to excercise his legs, you can’t do that if you’re genuinely poor. And what about reviewing social housing tennents at regular intervals to ensure that they are payting a proper rent, and as their income improves so should their level of housing benefit be reduced, which might encourage them to buy their own property and release a few more homes for those who really need them. And an extra bedroom is a luxury which has to be paid for it is not a right. I’m sure the bishops have their hearts in the right place but they just don’t seem to have a clue on the reality of the welfare system. One days fasting is a joke jand ust an empty gesture.
Closure of the Independent Living Fund is one of the most cowardly actions yet ... - Grow Your Own says:
March 12, 2014 at 2:59 am -
[…] You can watch his video diary at endhungerfast.co.uk/end-hunger-fast-week-one-round/ […]
Scott Albrecht says:
March 12, 2014 at 7:39 am -
As Keith said to me when we began our Fast, “Scott, you have a unique perspective on hunger in Britain”. We all do, but I’d like to share mine. I live with 18 destitute asylum seekers. Women and children who have been tortured, raped, trafficked, escaped FGM and economic poverty. When they arrive on our shores they often have nothing. If they recieve NASS support, that’s government accommodation, they are forced to live on £30 pound vouchers for one week. That’s around £4 a day. Remember that they have to travel to solicitors, buy phone cards, washing powder and hygiene product too. If they don’t recieve NASS support, they are one of the 400,000 who are on the streets. Sofa surfing, transactional sex (sex for food), prostitution or working for £40 a month are the some of the ways people survive. If their children are in school, there are no free school meals despite the fact that they are below poverty standards.
We at The Catholic Worker Farm have lived with over 300 people in exactly these situations. These are not ideas, rumours or statistics to us. We have wept with our Sisters. “The Lord hears the cry of the poor”, let’s hope and pray that our government listens as well.
Much Peace
Scott Albrecht (Day 7)