On a visit to the Cambourne foodbank today, Heidi Allen MP met the volunteers working there and agreed to help the foodbank build links with regional job centre officials.

"The foodbank is run by kind, dedicated volunteers who try their very hardest to help with the many issues which bring someone to a foodbank," she said.

"I'm hoping to be able to work with them more in the future, unlocking some of the housing and benefit difficulties often at the heart of food poverty."

The foodbank, organised by the Trussell Trust, works on a hub and spoke model, with distribution centres covering the city, Cambourne and Waterbeach – but users to Trussell Trust foodbanks are required to obtain food vouchers through a local referee, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Jonathan Edney, the Director of Cambridge City foodbank who attended the meeting with Heidi, said: "Our job is to help people in crisis.  We very often have people coming to the foodbank because their benefits have changed and they've got stuck in the system.

"The idea would be to have a hotline to local advisors at the Department for Work & Pensions whom our volunteer staff could call up.  People have to have a voucher to come to the foodbank – by the time we see them they should have another organisation to help them.  A hotline would enable us to give a bit of extra help."

"A woman I spoke to before Christmas said her husband had his job terminated quite unexpectedly but the benefits money hadn't come through.  In a situation like that, they've got no money, no food and two children... if we were able to use a hotline we could ask what's going on and find out where the money is stuck.

In December David McAuley, Chief Executive of The Trussell Trust, said: "To stop UK hunger we must make sure the welfare system works fairly and compassionately, stopping people getting to a point where they have no money and cannot afford to eat.

"It feels like we could be seeing a new era at the DWP with a consultation on Work Capability Assessments and willingness to engage in dialogue with charities working on the front line."

In the past year the foodbank handed out food parcels to 4,900 people – an annual increase of 13 per cent.

The Trussell Trust runs a network of over 400 foodbanks providing emergency food parcels to people in crisis.  In 2015-16 it gave out 1,109,309 three-day emergency food supplies – during 2016-17 it fears its foodbanks could distribute the highest number of food parcels in its 12-year history.

It said benefit delays and changes are the biggest reasons for foodbank use and that links to local job centres will enable volunteers to help those in crisis quickly and effectively.

This article is based on a report in the Cambridge News.

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The Trussell Trust – website.

Cambridge City Foodbank – website

Cambourne Distribution Centre
Old Blue School
Eastgate
Cambourne
CB23 6DZ

• The centre is open every Thursday between 10:00 am and noon.
• Some of the other seven foodbanks run by the Trust in the Cambridge area have alternative opening times.
• There is also a Trust foodbank in Market Hill, Royston which is open on Wednesday mornings and Saturday afternoons.
• Fodbank vouchers.
• There's also a small foodbank at the SCDC office in Cambourne.

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Heidi Allen MP
South Cambridgeshire
153 St Neots Road
Hardwick
CB23 7QJ

Phone
01954 212 707

E-mail
heidi.allen.mp@parliament.uk

Twitter
@heidiallen75

Website
www.heidisouthcambs.co.uk

Voting record in Parliament

www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25348/heidi_allen/south_cambridgeshire

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