Tag: doncaster food bank

Doncaster Food Bank

The Food Bank run by members of Unite Community is getting busier by the week.  We are getting more and more people coming for help as the welfare cuts bite deep into the heart of our community.  We hear stories of extreme poverty, desperation and hopelessness that make us even more determined to continue to provide at least some relief for some of those affected.

We would be unable to provide this help without the generosity of Unite Industrial Branch’s that have once again provided the funds to replenish our rapidly diminishing stocks.   We also need to express our gratitude to the many members of the public who, week on week make donations of either food or cash.

In the last week we have had members of the public hand us donations of £10, £5 and £2 and though these amounts are not great individually they do make a significant difference collectively, and that illustrates one of the objectives of Unite Community, that collectively we can make a difference.

We have contacted two local Members of Parliament and have received responses expressing their concern at the number of people who need to use food banks, however despite providing a PayPal account reference we have yet to receive a donation from them.

All donations are welcomed and if anyone can help donations can be made at PapPal account. johnshep50@talktalk.net. I have set this up as a private account to avoid charges and to ensure that every penny donated goes towards maintaining the food bank.

Once again many thanks to Unite and the general public for their continued support.

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Doncaster Food Bank

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Doncaster suffers from above average unemployment and the Council has compounded the situation by reducing their employees by many hundreds over the last three years, and announcing recently that approximately a further twelve hundred jobs are to be lost as a result of the reduction of £109 million in Government funding.

Against this background, coupled with the desperate situation many people find themselves in when trying to heat their homes, members of Unite Community, along with members of other protest groups in Doncaster, namely Doncaster Against the Cuts and the Doncaster Peoples Assembly decided to highlight the situation by setting up a Food Bank in the town centre on one Saturday in November.

The intention initially was to bring the issue of people having to choose between heating the home or feeding themselves.  However, the response we received was shocking with a number of people bringing heartbreaking stories of poverty and hunger, often brought about through Draconian unfair sanctions placed upon them by the employment service or unfair medical assessments that ruled severely disabled people we’re fit for work.

Consequently, from mid November members of Unite Community have operated a Food Bank in Doncaster town centre every Saturday and the number of people using this has increased week on week.  The finance for the Food Bank has come from a range of sources.  Initially we had collections at various group meetings, but as we have become more prominent we have had donations from members of the public.  These have been in the form of either cash donations or food donations.

There already exists several Food Banks in Doncaster but these have strict rules on who can use them, often only through a referral from the employment service, and on the number of times in a year they can be used.  Our view is that if someone is so desperate that they have to use a Food Bank restricting them to four times a year, which I believe some do, is ridiculous and so we have no restrictions on usage.

This policy however does place great pressure on our limited resources and we were grateful that the Doncaster branch of Unite recently agreed to provide additional funds to support our activities.

We recognise that our activities will have a limited impact on the total number of people in Doncaster who are suffering hardship, but while ever we have the finance to continue we will make at least some inroads into addressing the consequences of the unfair and cruel policies that are putting so many people at risk.

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