Britain has seen a sharp increase in the number of people unable to afford to feed themselves at the most basic level, thanks to the worsening economic climate and changes to the benefit system, according to a survey by a leading food charity.
In the past year FareShare, which redistributes waste food from major food manufacturers and supermarkets to social care charities, has seen a 20% rise in the number of people it is feeding – from 29,500 a year to 35,000.
And many of those, blighted by rising unemployment and business failures, are coming from the sorts of stable family backgrounds once considered immune to the worst effects of recession.
The new findings, which are backed up by research from other organisations working in the same field, will make sobering reading for the Conservative party as it gathers in Manchester this weekend for its annual conference, where the direction of the government's stringent deficit reduction programme will be carefully scrutinised.
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