Christmas Unwrapped - Poverty

Date added: Tuesday 2nd November 2010
Latest updated: Wednesday 11th April 2012

FACTS:

■ 11,000 children live below the poverty line in Plymouth.

■ Last year Plymouth Foodbank provided 2,093 individuals with short-term food supplies. Of those, 643 were children.

Ordinarily, Christmas is a time for eating and drinking to excess. It is also one of the busiest times of the year for Plymouth Foodbank, a charity providing families and individuals with emergency food parcels. "It gets worse for people over Christmas because children don't get free school meals during the holiday," says Maria at the Foodbank. Most food parcels help people whose benefi ts have changed or stopped and who are long-term unemployed or have
mental health problems. "I lost my job after eight years and had difficulties sorting out my benefits," says John. "I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the people giving out food." This Christmas the Foodbank will hand out festively inspiredfood parcels while its neighbouring organisation, the Oasis Project, is inviting people who use the service to take part in a festive cookery course in the run up to Christmas. “When I come to the centre they don’t tell me what I can’t do, they encourage me to fi nd out what I can do,” says Brett Elliot, planning to attend the course.

Devon Community Foundation has supported 197 groups helping people struggling with poverty this year.

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