Diocese handing out food in 40 parishes

ALMOST HALF the parishes in the Diocese of Leeds are providing daily food aid, new research has shown.

A survey of 88 parishes conducted by the diocese’s Justice and Peace Commission found more than 40 were giving out food, with at least 1,500 people involved in the work.

The survey found that a number of parishes were operating food banks while a similar number were helping people through the St Vincent de Paul Society.

Examples of food aid other than food banks included that of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Headingley, which provides a weekly hot meal to all comers, and that of the parish of the Sacred Heart and St William of York in Uppermill, which provides hot meals and food parcels for people each weekday.

The research was made public at a diocesan conference on food banks, chaired by former Labour MP John Battle, who leads the Justice and Peace Commission.

The Diocese of Leeds covers West Yorkshire and includes cities such as Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford and Wakefield. Mr Battle said that the figure released in 2014 by the Trussell Trust of 900,000 people nationally going to food banks in a year, under-represented the true level of food aid that was being provided.

The Leeds research also found that some 40 per cent of its parishes had been involved for between one and three years while another 23 per cent had been involved for less than a year. Of the 1,500 people involved, some 37 per cent helped in at least two ways in providing food aid.

The biggest contribution came from Catholics giving food and money to support food banks, with a number actually working in them.

“It struck me, listening to the testimonies, how shocking it was that in Britain in 2015 people have to lose their dignity in order to get enough food to eat,” Joe Burns, who coordinated the survey, said.

The Leeds Diocesan Justice and Peace commission is making the demand for a “right to eat” the central plank of its general election campaign, with 10 questions provoked by the results of the survey.