@IndyVoices
6 hours ago
Organisations like The Felix Project in London need help to feed vulnerable people ( Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd )
Today, The Independent launches the most urgent of appeals for the most basic of human needs – food for those in hunger.
The coronavirus crisis has massively widened the numbers of people suffering from the already endemic social evil of food poverty. The hundreds of thousands of people making use of food banks have now been joined by many more.
Those now losing their jobs or self-employed livelihoods, or seeing their wages cut, will find it harder than ever to make ends meet. Because of self-isolation and panic buying, many who would otherwise be able routinely to go out and provide for themselves now have to rely on the kindness of others.
Isolated pensioners and other vulnerable people simply cannot always get to the shops when the supermarkets allocate an hour or so to their needs. It is an especially acute problem in rural areas, but can happen in the most crowded but impersonal big cities.
Children, all of a sudden tipped out of school, where free meals and holiday food programmes were provided, may fall through the new safety nets. Heath and care workers, and other key staff in supply chains, public transport and basic industries such as energy supply, may not be able to make it to the shops to get fresh produce. There is a shortfall in the quality as well as the quantity of the foodstuffs available to them. That needs to be remedied.
and of course Humanity First is doing their part, in many parts of the world: https://hfuk.org/
