By Nathaniel Mawson
If there's one thing you would have heard about lately it's food banks. Organisations such as the Trussell Trust are a rare thing in politics - somehow they manage to prove everybody right, or at least they provide a useful backdrop to hang some figures on. For Labour an increase in the amount of people relying on help with food is a disaster caused by a failing Government. However, for the Coalition the increase in assistance could be through better awareness that help is available and a huge step forward for the Big Society. People care and therefore people give food - charity from a very fair-minded nation.
The first Trussell Trust food bank was set up in 2000 in a garden shed in Salisbury. The organisation's website gives an idea of just how quickly and how far the service has spread as well as what they aim to achieve for the future "With over 250 food banks currently launched, our goal is for every town to have one." A good thing too considering "In 2011-12 food banks fed 128,687 people nationwide, in 2012-13 we anticipate this number will rise to over 230,000."
Back to the political world for a moment and David Cameron informs us that “The use of food banks went up tenfold under the last Labour government.” Certainly not very comfortable reading but what does that actually mean? Mary Creagh Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs tweeted that it's over to Trussell Trust, Fare Share and Channel 4 to judge the validity of this claim...and us. The interesting thing is that the Trussell Trust food banks (which I am focusing on) began in 2000 and so existed almost exclusively under a Labour Government.
If we take the figures from 2005-6 (after the food banks took on a franchise-like model) we can see that 2,814 people were aided. Fast-forward to 2009-10 and we have 40,898. A tenfold increase - or 38,084 people. However, the Labour party can argue that things have not gotten much better under the Coalition with figures from 2010-11/2011-12 saying 61,468 and 128,697 people had to rely upon the help of food banks. A threefold increase rather than tenfold even though the numbers are larger.
Though the statistics may be flexible the truth, it appears, is not and David Cameron was correct. Another interesting fact is that the number of people in need of assistance rose to 13,849 in 2007-08 - a huge jump before the economic crisis had happened. What this tells us is that when the Opposition claim a cause and effect in the figures we have to admit that part of that problem had predated the economic policies that Labour are blaming.
Whatever the figures mean for him, his Coalition and his tenure as Prime Minister will continue to be debated but for now at least Mr Cameron is correct. So to answer Mary Creagh's inquiry, yes Labour did see a tenfold increase.
