The Hungry British Public

[marmar]

via truthdig:


The Hungry British Public
Posted on May 6, 2013


Neoliberalism and its brand of response to economic crisis, austerity—both legacies of the recently deceased former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—are creating a U.K. where one in five mothers regularly goes without food in order to feed her children.

Hunger is rising rapidly in the country. In the last 12 months, the Trussell Trust, the largest operator of food banks in the U.K., has fed 350,000 people—100,000 more than were expected and 170 percent more than it fed during the previous year.

Most of the people who seek help from the Trust are unemployed and have had their social support cut by the country’s leadership, a group of officials who refer to people who have been shut out by the economy and are struggling to survive as “scroungers.”

One man who gets assistance from the Trust and now works as one of its volunteers is a former taxi driver. When his wife became ill and disabled, he tended to her full time. He lost that caretaker salary when she died last year and had no income for seven weeks while he waited for the government to activate his unemployment benefits. He says he lived on three bags of food provided by the food bank during that time. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_hungry_british_public_20130506/