Dotted with crying emojis, Street Support Salford and Manchester this morning put up a notice on its Facebook page stating... 'Unfortunately sad news...we cannot supply any food until further notice/we only received £40 from the crowd funding page for food for the summer holidays too /we hope that someone will back us/but until we cannot supply...'.
Street Support is more known for working with rough sleepers and the homeless, but since October last year has also been supplying families in need with food from the Fair Share scheme and clothing donated by the community.
To help its 16 Salford families was costing £80 a month to supply them with basic ingredients to make meals. Recently Street Support's voluntary workers have been paying for the food out of their own pockets but now they just cannot afford it.
The Street Support scheme is unique in that the aid is done on a totally informal process and families get in touch by word of mouth...
"Foodbanks need official referrals from social workers or agencies but for our scheme you don't need vouchers" explains Street Support founder, Angela Barratt "We also believe that there's no privacy at places like Citizen's Advice Bureau and the DWP, and that people shouldn't have to trek miles for food. Some families are too proud to even ask for help, even though they've got no food."
It's all left Angela fuming... "Some of these people are working all hours and they can't even afford to pay the rent, clothe their kids and feed them" she adds "The families will now have to go to official foodbanks. And, in that system, you only get three vouchers a year for help - it's worse than the war because at least then you had regular rations."
Street Support was also hoping to start providing lunches during the summer months for children, after reports of 'holiday hunger' from teachers and a survey by the National Union of Teachers, in which 37% of those who responded said that pupils were returning to school with signs of malnourishment (see previous Salford Star article – click here). Now that scheme is almost out of the window as they just couldn't raise enough donations.
But the very fact that Angela and all her front line voluntary helpers are having to sort out the street homeless and provide food for needy families, makes her mad...
"The rich are getting richer and the Tories are killing off the poor" she fumes "This is Dark Age Britain – and I'll be voting for Jeremy Corbyn tomorrow to make things better for all people..."
To donate see www.streetsupportsalfordmanchester.com/
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