‘Urgent’ food bank project is launched as families struggle
NEW HUB AIMS TO HELP PEOPLE LIVING BELOW THE POVERTY LINE
TRADE unions in Hull are set to launch a new volunteer-run food bank initiative in the city.
Initially, it will be based in Spring Bank after the Kurdish Arts and Community Centre kindly donated its premises to become the Unity Shop.
Boxer Tommy Coyle, local councillors and trade union officials took part in an online launch event on Saturday night.
The Hull-born sportsman recently donated 1,000 school uniforms to families struggling to pay for them ahead of the start of the new term.
As well as the new hub in Spring Bank, the Hull and District Trades Council says it is also looking to set up a mobile food bank service travelling to communities across Hull and into the East Riding to distribute donated food and personal care products.
Trades Council organising officer Tony Smith said: “As lockdown progressed, we became increasingly aware of the pressures that many workers were having to face with on a day-to-day basis.
“Many of our unemployment and living standards.
“Trade unions traditionally work in workplaces and that will always be the case, however we think significant numbers of workers will members an attack face on not be in work, either on furlough or universal credit.”
Mr Smith said just over 10,200 children in Hull were recorded as living below the poverty line last year with 55 per cent belonging to working families.
He said the coronavirus pandemic had intensified the problems facing low-income families relying on zerohour contracts for work.
“They haven’t failed, the system has. Through no fault of their own, thousands of families in Hull and the surrounding areas are struggling to make ends meet.
“That being the case, the Trades Council has agreed to launch this food bank initiative.
“In the first instance we will operate out of the Kurdish Community Centre, but we are looking to develop a mobile operation, travelling to estates and communities and using premises there such as community centres.
“As well as food we aim to provide personal care products, toys and other essentials that families might need.”
He said appeals for donations from across Hull and an food parcels had distributed.
“We are also hoping that individual branch members will take out a standing order for a few pounds a month to keep it going, similar to what the trade unions did during the miners’ strike in the 1980s.”
Many of our members face unemployment and an attack on living standards
Tony Smith
had been made union branches initial batch of already been