Wirral Food Bank celebrates first birthday (From Wirral Globe)
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Wirral Food Bank celebrates first birthday
11:38am Tuesday 4th December 2012 in News
Jayne Branch-Murray (front right) joins supporters and volunteers at the Foodbank in Birkenhead for a first year celebration.
VOLUNTEERS from a Wirral foodbank have celebrated feeding almost 4,000 people since the centre opened its doors a year ago.
Supporters and volunteers of the church and community project, including mayor Gerry Ellis, gathered to celebrate its first anniversary with front line agencies in the area, which refer people who are struggling to feed their families.
The project is supported by housing landlord Riverside, which has donated £3,400 towards the project which has given 32 tons of food to people in financial crisis.
All the major supermarkets in Wirral support the Bank, allowing collections at their stores, where shoppers are happy to donate a few items from their weekly shopping trolley to help their community.
Jayne Branch-Murray, community engagement officer for Riverside and a Food Bank volunteer, said: "The people of Wirral are really generous because they know the food is staying local and helping people in their own community.
"Some have commented that they’re aware that it could easily be them that need help.
"Others say they wish the Food Bank had been there to help them in their time of need."
The Food Bank has 80 volunteers working in various roles to pack and deliver food parcels for the charity.
Jayne Branch-Murray added: "As the welfare reforms begin to bite we see many more people struggling to acquire the basic necessities of life, food being one.
"We're already seeing people who have had their benefits stopped or delayed and have had to come to us as they hit a crisis point in their lives.”
Jayne Branch-Murray (front right) joins supporters and volunteers at the Foodbank in Birkenhead for a first year celebration.
Comments(17)
Jack Boot
says...
12:26pm Tue 4 Dec 12
David Scott
says...
12:52pm Tue 4 Dec 12
Positive thinker
says...
4:00pm Tue 4 Dec 12
reason they need to blow there own trumpets at whatever opertunity theyget
Positive thinker
says...
4:01pm Tue 4 Dec 12
reason they need to blow there own trumpets at whatever opertunity they get
Positive thinker
says...
4:01pm Tue 4 Dec 12
reason they need to blow there own trumpets at whatever opertunity they get
bigfoot
says...
6:46pm Tue 4 Dec 12
At least the previous corpulant leader isn't present!
Positive thinker
says...
6:55pm Tue 4 Dec 12
Jimrob
says...
11:20pm Tue 4 Dec 12
Yes' the people running the show should be commended for their efforts in trying to alleviate the stresses on the poor.
But to have all those politicians, who have their noses buried so far in to the trough of public finances for personal gain, in the picture actually celebrating the fact that due to them and their big business partners actions, we NEED such organizations, I find personally disgusting.
They should all be made to live on the handouts of the Food Bank for a year.
woodyres2
says...
1:49pm Wed 5 Dec 12
I agree with everyone about this sickening PR stunt. Don't these people realise that if they were doing their jobs properly there would be no need for Foodbanks at all.
What's next - re-opening poor houses for the vulnerable elderly & disabled in our community who can't afford to pay for the care they need & which the Council does not want to pay for either.
I despair of this country I really do !!
Spiffy
says...
2:44pm Wed 5 Dec 12
..
All that's missing from the picture is a shoeless, dirty urchin dressed in rags holding out his bowl for Dickens to spin in his grave. Next to him being Bevan scratching his head as to how the welfare system could have gone so horribly wrong.
...
With welfare payments of housing benefit for shelter and more than enough to feed, clothe and keep a body clean...and more than enough money collected in taxes to support every single person in the UK (including immigrants) no matter what the cause of their financial difficulty....how then *really* has it come to this ?
...
I agree with every person commenting so far. This is just obscene. Shame on them.
Positive thinker
says...
6:15pm Wed 5 Dec 12
Hugo1008
says...
9:25pm Wed 5 Dec 12
Sad though it is the actual food bank is almost a necessity to many families and single people who do need assistance.
It is infinitely better to give food and essential items, rather than money, other wise you get all the dregs and no-marks trying to get in on the act for Booze, Fags, and Drugs.
Positive thinker
says...
10:24pm Wed 5 Dec 12
bickyboy
says...
8:30pm Thu 6 Dec 12
Its obscene that some British citizens have so much money that they couldn't spend it if they lived for a thousand years, and yet others who are born equal to them have to rely on foodbanks. And they do. Stop Press for those who don't know this, but since the Tories started attacking the welfare budget many, many people have their benefits stopped for minor transgressions of the very strict rules you have to adhere to to receive those benefits; such as signing on late, not being sick enough, refusing to take a job that pays less than they get on benefits, turning up late for a sickness assessment; and these people have no disposable income at all, sometimes for weeks or even months on end.
63 of the people who were sacked when Remploy factories closed down have found work since. 63 out of over a thousand disabled people. Yeah, that went well, didn't it?
If anyone knows a way of materialising food out of thin air, then this "sickening PR stunt" could easily become the last of its kind. Sadly we live in the real world; a world of guffawing Chancellors who, judging by their behaviour in Parliament think its funny that people don't have enough to eat.
Sorry, but I would spit on the scumbags who run this country long before I would listen to any explanation of their cruel, malicious treatment of the poor.
Positive thinker
says...
6:17pm Fri 7 Dec 12
Hugo1008
says...
2:23pm Mon 10 Dec 12
I would urge the electorate under no circumstances elect either Labour, Conservative, or Liberal Democrat.
Pick a new face and this will help to serve notice on all the present Councillors that future elections will be treated in the same manner.
The present Party Political set up and those Councillors involved are the prime reason why Wirral is the most disliked and worst performing Borough Council in the entire country.
There should be no Party Politics in local government, by not electing any representative from the so called three main candidates as mentioned will be the first step in changing the system once and for all.
Councillors are elected to serve the local population and not any particular Party Political Party Dogma, lets begin to put and end to it.
AyveeBee says...
12:26pm Tue 4 Dec 12