Charities helping those who are struggling to simply get by in the north of Nottinghamshire have slammed a Conservative MP's comments on foodbanks. Ashfield's Lee Anderson came under fire for his remarks that people had been using foodbanks because they "cannot budget" and "cannot cook properly".
In a House of Commons debate on Wednesday, May 11 Mr Anderson claimed a meal can be made "for around 30p a day" and said: "I think you will see there is not this massive use for foodbanks in this country. We have got generation after generation who cannot cook properly. They cannot cook a meal from scratch. They cannot budget."
While he received support from fellow Conservative MPs, including Mansfield's Ben Bradley who argued he was not 'out of touch', swathes of people and charitable organisations condemned the comments, including those in Ashfield and Mansfield.
Read more: Disbelief and anger in town after MP's remarks
Maigan Frecknall, the manager of The Social Action Hub in the north Nottinghamshire village of Rainworth, fears his comments will only reinforce the negative stigma surrounding food bank use. The Social Action Hub offers a number of services including support for educational needs, food poverty and financial difficulties.
She told Nottinghamshire Live: "I definitely disagree. There is a high need for food banks and there are a lot of people who do really need it. It would be hard for him [to understand] if he is not in need himself.
"It is not a generational thing. I do not know why he would say that when bills and the costs of living have gone up. It's not just those in poverty, everyone is struggling. Everyone has a different story to tell.
"All of them are valid. It really does not help as there has always been a negative stigma to it.
"It's not fair for the people who need to use those services. People have gone hungry because they are embarrassed."
In response to Mr Anderson's claim that "you cannot keep throwing money at the problem" the Social Action Hub says 16% of all households in the UK have had to cut back of quantity or quality of food to afford other essentials such as energy bills, which have risen some 54%. The organisation alone has 670 members signed up to its 'social supermarket', which costs £1 for a lifetime membership or £3.50 to use per shop, and allows people with little to no income to spare to access basic necessities.
In the past 12 months alone it has delivered 1462 emergency food parcels, collected surplus food from local stores 1347 times, made 2563 meals available from in-store collections and supplied 5,532 baskets of food which equates to roughly 3,000 meals per month. And research from the East Midlands' Loughborough University estimates around 90,000 people die from food poverty every single year.
Asked what message she would send to those who may now feel shame following Mr Anderson's comments she added: "It is OK to ask for help when you need it."
Sumi Rabindrakumar, head of policy at the Trussell Trust, also condemned his statements. The trust operates two foodbanks in the north of the county, including one west of Kirkby and another just north of Mansfield.
"Research from the Trussell Trust and other independent organisations is clear that food bank need in the UK is about lack of income, not food," the trust says. "Everyone should have enough money in their pockets to afford the essentials but people at food banks are telling us they’re skipping meals to feed their children and requesting food products that don’t need heating because they can’t afford to switch on the oven. For millions of families on the very lowest incomes, this isn’t a cost of living crisis, it’s about the cost of surviving.
“Cooking from scratch won’t help families keep the lights on or put food on the table, if they don’t have enough money in their pockets. Our research shows that people at food banks had on average just £57 a week to live on after housing costs, and no amount of budget management or cooking classes will make this stretch to cover council tax, energy bills, food and all the other essentials we all need to get by.
"That’s why we’re urgently calling on the government to bring benefits in line with the true cost of living and – in the longer term – to introduce a commitment in the benefits system to ensure everyone can afford the essentials we all need to survive.”
Mr Anderson was contacted several times by Nottinghamshire Live. He has however stood by his statements in an interview on Times Radio.
He said: "The point I was trying to make is that I think the the actual food bank usage is is exaggerated. The point I was trying to make is that yes, we've got lots of food banks.
"But actually, if we get to the real nub of the problem in a lot of cases, then there are generations of people out there that simply haven't got the skills to to budget properly and to go shopping and do a proper weekly shop like we used to back in the day, and use of fresh ingredients to make nutritious meals. That's the point I'm making and I'm so glad it's caused all this fuss because it brings that debate out.
"Obviously people need food. That's a ridiculous question. What I'm saying is you can't just keep throwing money at a problem, eventually, you've got to try and get to the root cause of the problem."
