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To: The UK Coalition Government
Force the Government to fund our food banks
We call on the Government to abide by the spirit of the EU food aid programme and to spend the £3m it has claimed on its intended use – food banks.
We condemn the Government for seeking to block funding for deprived people, for failing to claim the £22m originally available, and for diverting the £3m to its failing work programme.
We condemn the Government for seeking to block funding for deprived people, for failing to claim the £22m originally available, and for diverting the £3m to its failing work programme.
Why is this important?
Despite a doubling in the demands on food banks in the past year, the UK Government refused to claim the UK's £22m share of a £2bn fund voted by the European Union in 2013 to tackle food deprivation across the EU.
Instead, it has taken the minimum allowed sum of £3m which, despite the intention of the EU fund, it is using to prop up its already failing work programme.
Labour MEP Richard Howitt, who helped negotiate the fund, said it 'defied belief' that David Cameron’s Government had 'sought to block a fund for the most deprived’. “The cost of this Government’s anti-European ideology, coupled with its bitterly felt cost-of-living crisis, is literally taking food from the mouths of children,” he said.
This money would ease some of the current burden on food banks, as well as supporting the many other UK charities which help the homeless and those fleeing domestic violence.
Instead, it has taken the minimum allowed sum of £3m which, despite the intention of the EU fund, it is using to prop up its already failing work programme.
Labour MEP Richard Howitt, who helped negotiate the fund, said it 'defied belief' that David Cameron’s Government had 'sought to block a fund for the most deprived’. “The cost of this Government’s anti-European ideology, coupled with its bitterly felt cost-of-living crisis, is literally taking food from the mouths of children,” he said.
This money would ease some of the current burden on food banks, as well as supporting the many other UK charities which help the homeless and those fleeing domestic violence.
