The Mirror spoke to food bank volunteer Sarah Chapman and Labour MP Marsha de Cordova about record levels of poverty – as they called for food bank use to become ‘history’
A food bank volunteer who is witnessing record levels of poverty has pleaded with Keir Starmer to help make food banks “history”.
Sarah Chapman said usage at her south London food bank has risen by more than 400% since she helped open it in 2013 – including a 96% increase in just the last five years. Speaking to The Mirror at the foodbank in Battersea, she said her service and others across the UK are “absolutely dreaming” of food banks no longer being needed. It comes after Gordon Brown blasted the return of ‘poverty of 60 years ago’ as he made a big demand.
Ms Chapman continued: “I often say to my kids and to young people, did you know that food banks didn’t used to exist, and we can go back to that time where everybody has enough income for essentials, even in the hardest times, if we can make social security actually secure for when people need it most.
“We can ensure that food banks become history, which is what we and food banks across the UK are absolutely dreaming of.”
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Ms Chapman said it is not rare for her to encounter visitors with suicidal thoughts and high levels of stress and anxiety. “People are often very stressed. People have told us they walk up and down a few times before coming in because they are sort of nervous. People carry a lot of shame,” she said.
Ms Chapman admitted she was grateful Labour MPs rebelled against proposed cuts to disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payments (PIP), with two thirds of those who visit her foodbank having a disability or health condition.
“That was something like, whoa, I don’t know if we can stem the tide if PIP is cut, if the health element of Universal Credit is cut, that’s going in completely the wrong direction,” she said.
Ms Chapman said her message to the PM is the same as it has been since 2013: “We want the government to invest in social security, because that’s an investment in people. It’s an investment in children. Inequality is bad for us all in different ways.”
Disabled Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, who represents the foodbank, told The Mirror the government made the “wrong choice” in targeting disability benefits earlier this year. But she said the welfare system must be “rebuilt and reformed” as she hit out at the Tories’ “cruel and inhumane” approach to benefits.
But she said: “What I wasn’t in favour of, was the desire to save £5billion on the backs of disabled people. It was the wrong decision, and it was the wrong choice. I’m a disabled woman, and so I fully understand and appreciate what that support might mean for people, and to lose that would have been devastating.”
National figures combined by The Trussell Trust, a community of food banks including Wandsworth’s one, found 2.9 million emergency food parcels were provided last year, with more than a million for children. This is equivalent to one parcel every 11 seconds and a 51% increase compared to five years ago.
It comes as research by the Resolution Foundation last year found that working-age families have lost on average £1,500 a year due to the Tories’ overhaul of the social security system.
Ms de Cordova said she has constituents coming to her “all the time” telling her horrific stories about how poverty is affecting them.
“I was at an event in my constituency and a lady came to me – I won’t share what she wanted to talk about – but she was in tears,” she said. She’s a mother of four children, and her husband works, and they are still facing huge challenges.”
The politician has joined other Labour MPs in piling pressure on Mr Starmer to ditch the Conservative-era two-child benefit limit as a start to reversing the damage caused by the Tories.
Asked what else is needed, Ms de Cordova said “first and foremost” there needs to be a culture shift in how society thinks about the benefits system.
“I think many of the measures that were carried out by the Conservatives in government were cruel and inhumane, particularly around changes to social security support for disabled people,” she said.
“We can’t get away from the 14 years of cuts and austerity. On top of that, the hostile environment that they have created has resulted in record numbers of people coming to use food banks, and the amazing generosity of people wanting to support those in need is the right thing, but I want to say, in the future, that we no longer need food banks.”
The MP, who is registered blind, is also passionate about ministers’ plans to reform employment support. She pointed to research by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Eye Health and Visual Impairment, which she chairs, which last year(2024) found a quarter of businesses would not be willing to adapt their workplaces to employ a blind or partially sighted person.
“If an employer’s attitude is they still won’t want to take somebody who is disabled or has a visual impairment, then we’ve got to crack that nut,” she said.
“I’m really hopeful that we will take the measures that are needed to ensure that we help more disabled people get into work, but we also help to shift and change employer attitudes.”
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