UK's food bank crisis - charities fear three million children will go hungry during this year's summer holidays
Food banks were practically unheard of in the UK before the 2008 recession, but there are now more than 2,000.
By 2012, three new food banks were opening each week, such was the need for these services — and it shows no sign of slowing down.
The number of people using them has risen by 73 per cent in the last five years. Shockingly, many people using them have jobs, but are still struggling to make ends meet.
Why are people using food banks?
The biggest nationwide study on food banks by Oxford University found almost half of households had unsteady incomes week-to-week.
Nearly 80 per cent reported they had skipped meals or gone without eating —sometimes for days at a time — in the past 12 months.
Half were in fuel poverty and had gone without heating for more than four days in the past year, 50 per cent couldn't afford toiletries, and one in five had been forced to sleep rough.
(Daily Mail via MSN)
If this is the position in one of the richest countries in the world, and it's about to get worse - imagine what it must be like in poor countries.
The poor we shall always have with us, but why the hungry? - John van Hengel