Sheffield has been named as the area where Trussell Trust foodbanks are handing out the most parcels in Britain.
Chris Hardy, manager of the S6 Foodbank network in Sheffield, chatted with Harry Harrison about how every one of the 86,000 parcels goes out to a real family - not just a digit on a spreadsheet.
Chris Hardy, manager of the S6 Foodbank network in Sheffield, chatted with Harry Harrison about how every one of the 86,000 parcels goes out to a real family - not just a digit on a spreadsheet.
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00:00 Just talk us through the importance of recognising that every single one of those numbers is actually that many people.
00:08 Yeah, so obviously we saw just under 70,000 people last year at our food banks across the city.
00:13 Each one of those is a story, each one of those is a person, each one of those is a school kid who's coming to our food bank.
00:21 Each one of them has got a different story actually.
00:25 They're not all the same, but they're all here for one reason and that's because they're going hungry and they can't afford to put food on the table.
00:32 So for us it's listening to each one of them's stories individually, listening to how we can help them but also actually how we can empower them to help themselves.
00:42 And that's what we do here at the food bank.
00:44 And you know one thing that's very well publicised and I think is an important number to publicise is the amount of kids that you guys are having to help.
00:53 I think in the conversation we were having before roughly 27,000 children since November I think it was.
00:59 No, that's the whole year.
01:01 27,000 children in just the last year and that's a lot of kids and that's got to be, as much as you see it every day, I guess that's still quite hard.
01:10 Yeah, it's really hard seeing that many children come through our doors because actually we need them in schools
01:16 and what we really need is them to be learning to be able to be the best person they can.
01:21 And actually we all know that if you go to school hungry then you can't learn as well as you can if you've got a full belly of food.
01:28 So it's really important for us that every child that comes into our food bank has enough food in their stomach to be able to learn well, to be able to become the best person they can be.
01:37 And again, the families that we're seeing are families usually in work who are just struggling to be able to pay their bills.
01:47 But them children are really, everybody's important to us, but them children are really important to us because we need them to be attending school.
01:54 And part of that is the effect that that can have on the parents of these kids isn't it?
01:58 As you mentioned, you've got bills to pay, you've got food on the table, some parents have to make quite a tough decision in that sense don't they?
02:03 Yeah, I mean there's a real pressure with making sure there's food on the table, and a real shame actually of not being able to provide.
02:10 I mean, that's the underlying story, people feel really shameful about not being able to put food on the table, and there's nothing wrong with not being able to put food on your table.
02:20 And the families that we're seeing are usually in work who just can't afford at the end of the month to be able to pay all the bills and also put food on the table, just because of the rising costs in our city and in the UK.
02:33 So actually families are having real hard choices between paying their bills, paying their rent, paying their gas and electrics, and paying for food, especially with the prices as they are at the moment.
02:43 So for us it's them essential items, making sure them essential items are on the table.
02:48 Awesome. And anything else you'd like to add for the video or anything like that?
02:53 Yeah, if you want to add anything, I'd love to thank the people of Sheffield, because actually the food behind us now, in the pallets and pallets of food, wouldn't be in this warehouse without the generosity of the people of Sheffield, and the businesses of Sheffield as well, buying the food behind us.
03:09 Because actually that's what makes sure that kids stay in school, is the people donating their good hard-earned cash to us, and the businesses also donating to us, that make sure that people in Sheffield all have food on their table tonight and nobody goes without.
03:24 And that's our fundamental message is that people just are not going hungry in Sheffield because we've got food to provide it.
03:30 Awesome. Thank you guys.
03:32 Alright, matey. Thank you.