As the recession deepens, food banks offer emergency supplies, stepping into the breach when other services fail. The Trussell Trust, the charity that oversees them, is galvanising Churches and politicians to address one of the greatest problems exacerbated by the economic crisis: hunger
On a Friday morning at the Andover food bank there is a sense of purpose as a group of four volunteers pack tins of tomatoes and baked beans into boxes. With the number of people out of work rising steeply over the past 12 months the charity, which provides emergency supplies of food for free, has seen demand for its rations soar.
"We're sorting the food by product and date," says Trevor Sleath, manager of the food bank, as his team heaves the neatly sorted boxes on to the warehouse shelves.
The Andover food bank was founded four years ago by the Catholic Church of St John the Baptist, and runs from a building alongside the church, giving food boxes to those in most serious need.
The hungry come to the bank from a large area of Hampshire, through a range of organisations, including the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), social services and the probation service. They are commonly people who are having problems claiming their benefits, are newly released from prison or are homeless.
Last year the Andover food bank gave boxes to 1,785 people, an increase of 42 per cent on the previous year. "Unemployment is rising and there are so many people who need our help that we are desperately short of food for the first time," says Mr Sleath.
The Andover food bank is one of 41 around Britain, overseen by the Trussell Trust, a Christian charity which founded the first bank in Salisbury in 2000.
The dramatic increase in need is reflected nationally as well. In the 12 months to April, food banks around the country helped 24,000 people, while the year before they helped 10,000.
The packages they distribute contain food such as cornflakes, UHT milk, pasta, tinned vegetables, rice pudding and orange juice. They are either intended for families or single people and are designed to last for three days.
"Often that's all people need," says Chris Mould, director of the Trussell Trust. "We give out as many as three boxes consecutively and then look at other ways we can intervene to help people - by referring them to agencies for debt counselling or to drug rehab centres, for example."
Food boxes are made up in the food bank's warehouse and then distributed to certain organisations in their area. "Yesterday we delivered six boxes to the crisis centre in Andover and this morning they've rung to request more as they've used them all," says Mr Sleath.
The food bank also runs a system of vouchers which are held by health and social workers, probation officers, women's crisis centres and refuges which pass them to those they work with, to be exchanged for a box.
"In some parts of the country even the police take our vouchers, which they can give to people caught shoplifting," says Mr Mould. "The last thing someone living on the breadline needs is a criminal record and maybe all it takes is a bit of help to tide them over."
The food banks contribute to a much larger system of helping people in need. "We can't offer debt counselling or treat drug addicts, but we can refer people who come to us to the CAB or the crisis centre and those organisations in turn will ask us to provide food when they think a client is in need," says Mr Mould. He also says that the organisations working in the region try to be closely linked to provide continuity. He describes a family which runs out of money once a month because they are following a strict financial regime to pay off their debts. "So we have been asked by the CAB to issue a voucher once a month to get them over that bump," says Mr Mould.
Likewise, among a sheaf of letters of appreciation to the bank is one from a man who said he had been living in his car before being put into accommodation by Testway, a local housing association.
"I arrived at the flat to find to my amazement that there were two lovely food parcels left for me," wrote the man in February this year. "They were packed full of goodies. I was very touched by the gesture and would like to express my deepest thanks."
Towards the end of the morning at Andover food bank, there is a knock at the door of the warehouse, which is empty, the volunteers having gone home for lunch. A young couple with a baby in a pushchair have come to ask for a box of food to keep them going over the weekend.
"My benefits go into my mum's bank account," says the man. "She's gone away on holiday and run up an overdraft, so I can't get any money out."
As Mr Sleath unpacks boxes to put their contents in plastic bags, making them easier to carry in the pushchair, the man thanks him. "There's a lot of people round here would be in trouble if it wasn't for you," he says.
If there had been no food bank to help, the man admits he would have been forced to turn to crime. "I'd rob it, probably," he says. "I've got to have food for my daughter."
Mr Mould is angry about a failure in the system which allows people to get into such a situation.
"Government policy and the capacity to cope with the recession is a problem," he says. And with the numbers claiming Jobseeker's Allowance leaping from 832,000 to 1.55 million in the past 12 months, Jobcentres are struggling to cope. In some parts of the country there is a backlog of people waiting to get their benefits.
"The food banks try to fill in the gaps because if a person isn't able to collect their benefits for two weeks they may have nothing to eat for two weeks," says Mr Mould. "It needn't be like that."
The Labour Government, he suggests, falls short of working effectively with the third sector, despite acknowledging that charitable and religious organisations can reach people in a way that the Government cannot.
"They've failed to follow through with the financial commitment or policy arrangements to help us," he says. "If they agreed actively to work with us, the Jobcentre Plus could avoid rushing through payments which then may have to be clawed back because they have been done wrongly."
Mr Mould, a former Labour activist, says that much more interest has been shown by the Conservative Party. Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice has become very involved and the shadow work and pensions minister, Andrew Selous, has shown a genuine willingness to negotiate policy.
"If there were a change of government we anticipate we could have some very good conversations and make some changes," says Mr Mould. "We're emphatically non-party political, but it's a disappointment that the current Government hasn't worked with us more."
Food banks are franchises and can be started anywhere. In Andover it was Patrick Lavelle, a parishioner at St John the Baptist, who was inspired to found a project after recognising a need and visiting the Trussell Trust. He enlisted the assistance of the Diocese of Portsmouth, which allows the charity to use its buildings cost-free. The Trussell Trust gives a lot of support to its franchises, including issuing detailed instructions about how to set up a food bank. Community involvement, particularly volunteering, is one of the most important aspects. In Andover Mr Sleath, a retired civil servant and member of the Baptist Church, is the only paid employee, while the food bank's most trusted volunteer is a person who was homeless and now works five mornings a week at the warehouse. There is a large pool of other part-time or occasional volunteers and on Friday three of those sorting through tins of baked beans were from Bishop Challoner Catholic School in Andover. They were at the food bank as part of their "stretch yourself" course, in which they are required to do some charity work.
Another way of getting locals involved is through appealing for donations at the supermarket door. All the main supermarkets in Andover collaborate and every couple of months volunteers will spend a weekend asking people to contribute from their weekly shop.
"We give them a shopping list and often they can give us something from their ‘two for the price of one' purchases," says Mr Sleath. "Occasionally someone will fill a whole trolley. Or perhaps an elderly person will use their pension to buy us a tin of tomatoes."
Andover, a market town with a population of a little over 52,000, does not appear to suffer from deprivation. However, Mr Sleath says appearances can be deceptive. There are pockets of real poverty in the town and surrounding area, with drug addiction and homelessness causing serious social problems.
The important thing is to show people that there is great need in their immediate neighbourhood. It is estimated that half of all shoppers in Salisbury contribute to supermarket collections now that the food bank is well established. With the recession set to bite still deeper in the coming months, it is frontline charities such as the food bank which have the ambition and motivation to make a difference.
"By the end of the year we will have 50 food banks in Britain and there are dozens of other projects in the pipeline," says Mr Mould. "We have to expose the hidden hunger in this country."