A little house and some gold bullion in Mr Chips’ freezer… Can you guess the catchphrase?
Frozen assets of course.
That was the answer that netted The Chase’s Jenny Ryan a total of £56,600 as she triumphed in ITV’s Celebrity Catchphrase for food poverty charity The Trussell Trust.
Plenty of us are old enough to remember when celebrities and generous quiz prizes weren’t feeding families in the UK – many of whom are in work themselves.
But Jenny Ryan’s big-hearted gesture shows the extent to which foodbank use has been entirely normalised in this country.
Taken alongside Marcus Rashford taking the lead on free school meals policy, and his partnership with Tom Kerridge taking cheap, healthy cooking to struggling families, it’s a new low in the gulf between state support and the scale of need.
It’s left third-sector organisations picking up the pieces in a system where the state safety net is riddled with holes.
When the PM believes government help with rocketing energy bills is worth £140 a week rather than £140 for the entire winter (and only for those who qualify), it’s an unconscious admission of the inadequacy of the support.
Separately, the £500m Household Support Fund was announced last autumn, at the same time as the £20 Universal Credit uplift was withdrawn to widespread alarm.
It’s a pot of cash, available until the end of March, to help the most vulnerable UC claimants if they fall into crisis. It’s there to help them pay for food, clothing and bills but it goes to councils and partner organisations to distribute – effectively building in another layer before those in need can get their hands on the cash.
View from the front line
Sabine Goodwin is co-ordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN), the UK’s network of food aid providers. She sees the situation as a twin crisis and says the state safety net is “crumbling rapidly”.
“What we’re seeing now anecdotally since the end to the Universal Credit uplift is a huge increase in need,” she says. “But also we’re seeing simultaneously the cost of living crisis that’s really impacting on people’s ability to manage.
“The social security system overall has been eroded and, what’s more, wages don’t match the cost of living. Jobs are often insecure, so you might just have a few hours’ work and not be able to manage on what you’re earning.”
IFAN is calling for a cash-first approach to tackling food insecurity. Helping people to maximise their income is key to cutting the need for foodbanks but, she says, it’s not always enough. Food support and the volunteers who help to provide it will still be needed.
“People have been seeing this more immediate need in their communities,” she says. “But however positive this feels, no one should have to rely on charity to survive.”
While the state’s failures have been lamentable, the shortcomings have highlighted a new type of activism and grassroots hero.
Celebs, individuals, even children – all rolling up their sleeves to fill a need they’ve identified. And, of course, all turbo charged by Covid.
Food writer Jack Monroe has single-handedly got all of us digging into inflation figures and appreciating the flaws in how they’re calculated.
Last month, Jack’s long-running campaign really took off and just days later the ONS announced it was in the middle of transforming its processes to take into account price rises of the cheapest staples (some of which have been in treble figures, not the 5.4 per cent headline rate).
Community champions
But the most terrible stories of hardship have been tempered by the warmhearted responses of ordinary people.
Mary Quinn, a tenant of Falkirk Council, was paying up to £50 a day (yes, really) for electricity because of the hike in prices and the electric Thermaflow heating system installed in her home.
When her story hit the local paper at the end of last year, horrified readers rallied to support her with cash and food for Christmas. One card reached her, addressed only to ‘Mary Quinn, South Alloa’.
Bex Wilson was just a regular teacher in Leeds until the day an 11-year-old pupil disclosed to her that he and his siblings didn’t have a bed.
A crisis had forced his family into unfurnished accommodation and they were sleeping on old sofa cushions.
Bex realised she had a choice: she could “be satisfied with trying to meet his basic needs”. Or, she says, she could “continue to be the best teacher I can be whilst using my time and influence to make sure every child has their basic needs met”.
That’s how Zarach came into being; the charity fundraises for bed bundles to fulfil its mission to ensure “every head has a bed”.
The kids are alright
And 10-year-old Man United fan Ben Dickinson is so inspired by Marcus Rashford’s work with food poverty charity FareShare that he’s pledged to walk the 50 miles from Inver Park in his hometown of Larne, Northern Ireland, to Old Trafford.
Ben’s Miles for Meals will take place in March, and by the end of it he hopes to have got 50,000 meals in to vulnerable children across the UK.
So where government has failed, 10-year-olds have stepped up – alongside teachers, charities, third-sector organisations and millions of other quiet, concerned heroes.
They will feel they have no option but to carry on, but however heartwarming their stories are they pull a screen around the true scale of the poverty situation.
And they take the heat off those in power to reckon with the choices they make.
Main photo: ITV
