Read all about it! We make the paper

See what we had to say about food poverty in Greater Manchester.

THOUSANDS of people in and around Manchester learned this week about our ongoing work to tackle hunger.
The Manchester Evening News, which sells around 41,000 print copies a day, recently published two detailed articles about food poverty in Salford, one looking at the city’s food bank, and another at a new pantry project.

23/12/2017: What it’s like at a foodbank just before Christmas
28/12/2017: The supermarket where you can do a weekly shop for £2.50

Prompted by the reports, our director Niall Cooper sent this letter, which was printed as the lead letter in the paper on Monday 8 January.

We must tackle the root causes of poverty

Thank you Beth Abbit and Jennifer Williams for thorough and informative reports on Salford Food Bank and the Emmaus Pantry in Salford respectively (M.E.N., December 23 and 28).
Both reports give useful snapshots of the food poverty that is prevalent on our doorstep, and the commendable work being done by local people to help their neighbours. The testimonies from those who have personal experience of poverty, all too often overlooked, were very powerful.
We are helping to set up more pantries across the country, including in Greater Manchester, working closely with emergency food providers and helping local
communities to develop their own projects to reduce food poverty.
As well as responding to the need, however, we must tackle the root causes of food poverty and food insecurity, to prevent such widespread poverty and destitution
arising.
The End Hunger UK campaign sets out nine ideas that would help, and in the next three weeks, Parliament will discuss two of those: a bill to end holiday hunger, and another to introduce annual measurement of food insecurity.
These bills could help make 2018 a turning point in the fight against hunger in the UK, and we hope Greater Manchester’s MPs will lend their support to both.
Niall Cooper, director,
Church Action on Poverty,
Salford