Interviews City Harvest on the rise of foodbanks & Cost of Living Crisis
’20 heures’ – France TV. Network: France 2 – Broadcast 5th October 2022
Reporter: Ambroise Bouleis
“More and more people rely on foodbanks. In the UK, the number of foodbanks is larger than the number of McDonalds and KFC together. Because of the cost of living crisis the number of new food recipients keeps increasing. 7 million people in the UK skip meals which is 50% more than a year ago.
As a response, foodbanks get organised at an industrial level. In its 13,000 sqf meter warehouse, City Harvest is operating like a logistics company even if it is a not-for-profit. With 60 employees and 200 volunteers, City Harvest collects surplus food in order to supply 1 million meals every month.”
Dan McAlpine, Head of Food at City Harvest, explains how fast we need to act due to the short shelf life of some of the products we collect. He also explains how the manufacturers are currently reducing their food waste due to the inflation and how challenging it is for us as result due to the increasing demand.
“City Harvest provides food to 350 charities, like NKCK.”
Melanie from North Kensington Community Kitchen explains that even though it’s a lot already, they need more food being delivered. She explains that the general situation does not improve and that the need increases. She explains that the government relies completely on foodbanks, the number of people needing food increases and the charities don’t have the capacity to fully answer that. The reporter finishes by explaining that due to the lack of political answers to this problem, the government is accused of institutionalizing foodbanks when foodbanks should only be an answer for emergency situations.
