The foodbank saved me and now I’m paying back help I got
Gran on giving hope to others
Come and have a sit down, my love,” says Shirley Ifield, ushering a pale, thin young woman to a chair in a brightly painted room.
“Do you want a cuppa? Help yourself to a mince pie. Now, how are you today?”
“Oh God,” sighs the woman, fighting back tears. “I’m just so, so stressed.”
“I know,” says gran-of-three Shirley, softly. “I understand. But you’ve come to the right place and I’m going to help you.”
Twenty minutes later, the single mum of two is leaving the Pecan foodbank in Southwark, South London, with three carrier bags of groceries, nappies and toiletries.
She will be able to give her kids three decent meals a day for the next three days, and knows they will also get enough food for Christmas and some treats.
But she has been given far more than a free food handout.
After months of despair, the mum has got help unravelling the Universal Credit nightmare that left her hungry and desperate.
Caring volunteer Shirley knows exactly how that feels. She was in the same boat 18 months ago.
The former nurse, 55, had to turn to the foodbank after losing her job and her home and then getting caught up in the Government’s chaotic welfare reforms.
Now, she is using her experience to help others feed their families and find a way through the misery.
“I’d worked hard all my life and paid my taxes and never dreamed that I’d have to rely on a foodbank,” says Shirley.
“But I ended up sick, jobless and homeless in the space of a month. Then moving on to UC left me in debt and pushed me to the brink.
“Now I’m in a position to pay back the help I got, but I’m still angry this broken system is failing so many families and children.”
This Christmas, we are asking readers to back our End Hunger, Feed A Family appeal and raise funds for The Trussell Trust.
It is the country’s largest provider of foodbanks, and expects to give out more than 160,000 food parcels in December, providing 1.5 million meals to starving families.
Because the Tories’ disastrous welfare reforms have sparked a 49% surge in demand nationwide.
In Southwark, one of the first boroughs in the UK to introduce UC three years ago, the misery caused by the benefits scandal is shockingly apparent.
Southwark’s foodbank, based at the Pecan charity in Peckham, which is part of the Trust network, saw a 30% rise in demand last year and a similar spike in 2018.
CEO Chris Price says at least 80% of the increase is due to UC. Clients are referred, with vouchers, by frontline care professionals like GPs, teachers, church groups, MPs and the Citizens Advice Bureau.
Chris, 50, says: “When we first opened we had a cupboard with a few shelves of emergency supplies.
“Now, we have a warehouse and last year we fed 5,000 people with 47 tonnes of food donated by the Shirley Ifield at the foodbank in Peckham
public. As a society, we should be helping people who are living on the breadline to rise above it. But at this foodbank we are simply taking people up to the breadline.”
Foodbank manager Simon Boxall, 54, is in the warehouse with volunteers sorting the cans, bottles and boxes from the latest collection at a local supermarket.
But the former primary school teacher would be happier if his job did not exist. “We are sailing into a situation where foodbanks are an accepted part of the welfare state,” he says. “That’s what I get really angry about.”
In an office across the road, Shirley is talking to a steady stream of desperate clients struggling to feed their families.
Like ex-soldier and single dad Barry, 43. He spent nine years in the Army, serving in Bosnia and Kuwait, then was a security guard.
But five years ago his partner walked out and he had to give up work to care for his daughter, now eight. His benefits were switched to UC and he says delays put him suddenly in debt.
He says: “The first time I came here, I felt I’d let myself down. I’m really grateful and glad they are here because they treat you like a human being.
“But I want to provide for my daughter, not rely on charity. I’ve used up all my savings, now I just want to get back to work, graft for the next 20 years and save some money to leave her.
“It’s been hard – more stressful than serving in a war zone.”
SPecan chief Chris Price and Simon Boxall
hirley comes in with the bags of food that volunteers have put together to see Barry and his daughter through the next three days.
Then she goes to deal with the next client, and is able to say, “I know what you’re going through”.
Shirley says: “In 2013 I injured my back while working in a private care home and had to stop work.
“My flat went with the job so I lost that, too. I had to sofa-surf at my daughter’s until I got a hostel and then I went to a support unit.
“I was on ESA [Employment and Support Allowance] and PIP [Personal Independence Payment], I paid my own rent and had no debt, I went back to college to train as an aromatherapist and began doing voluntary work.
“Then I got a council house here in Southwark, which was just rolling out UC.” Shirley, too, found herself in debt as she did not get money for three months. She says: “My mental health was beginning to suffer but I wasn’t getting any help or advice from the jobcentre, then I got an eviction letter. I went to the CAB and was told about the foodbank.
“I felt terrible when I first came, but they made me feel so welcome and at ease. And I saw all the people with young kids here and I realised it wasn’t my fault.
“I thought, ‘They’re here to help, take the help’ and I did, for three months. They helped me get back on my feet while I sorted my debt.”
Shirley adds: “I am still on UC – I don’t get signed off until after I have back surgery – but I started volunteering here a month ago.
“I can tell clients, ‘I’ve been there’, and they know someone understands what they are going through; the fear of being evicted, of not having enough to eat.
“Sadly, more and more schools are referring families here because teachers can see children aren’t eating. Doctors, too. It breaks my heart sometimes. But at least I’m doing something to help.”