From a feature in yesterday's Times T2 (£):
Craig is by no means a novice when it comes to living on the breadline. Recently he was left with 80p to last the week, but he used his wits and coped. He went to Tesco just before closing time when he knew food would be marked down in price and bought a packet of Lincolnshire sausages for 14p and a loaf of bread for 18p that saw him through the week.
Today, though, even by these standards, he is "desperate". It is Friday, his cupboards are empty and so are his pockets. He faces the prospect of a whole weekend with nothing to eat. So he has swallowed his pride and, like thousands of people in Britain these days, has come to a food bank in Liverpool. What he will get, effectively, is a free food parcel.
"I was very wary about coming here today," says Craig, 31, a sports science graduate who lost his job in retail last year and ended up homeless. "It's the stigma I suppose. You're embarrassed asking for help, but what else can you do? You've got no choice."
Sadly, this is the case for thousands of people in Britain. One new food bank is opening every week in this country as increasing numbers of people, both in low-paid work and unemployed, find they cannot afford to feed themselves and their families. Rising food costs, redundancy, benefit changes and benefit delays are among the reasons that they are forced to turn to charity.
They 'find they cannot afford to feed themselves and their families'. I know it's a naive question, but are there really people in Britain who, comfortably off and made aware of facts like these, feel no shame at all for the country?
