Please sign to show your support, as this is one of the greatest problems our nation faces today, and we must honour the belief that no person should ever have to go without the food they need.

Did you know that there are approximately 8.3 million people living in food poverty in the UK? This means that they do not have access to sufficient food that will match their basic needs. Why, in one of the most developed countries in the world, are so many people going hungry? 

Charts have shown that there has been an increase of 3.6 million people experiencing food insecurity since 2022.

The Trussell Trust has reported that a need for free food sources have reached historical high levels, with "approximately 454,750" people turning to food banks to feed themselves, an increase of 99,790 people when compared to 2023.

Due to the cost of living crisis and the skyrocketing prices of food, it can be expected, that without acting soon, these numbers will rapidly increase over the course of 2024.

Many people think that the solution to this is food banks, and although they are crucial in fighting hunger, they give products that have a long shelf life and are easy to make at the cost of them lacking the nutrition that the human diet needs.

Soup kitchens offer hot AND nutritious meals in a friendly group setting, with some soup kitchens providing about 200 in meals and 50 delivered ones in a single day. They are especially important for the homeless and elderly, who get to eat meals in a safe environment with other people. 

Neither soup kitchens nor food banks are funded by the government, with them relying heavily on donations, individuals, supermarkets for food and workers, and individuals, businesses and local authorities for money. The Trussell Trust is also supported by partners such as the National Lottery and Comic Relief, but recent reports have revealed that food banks are struggling to provide enough support to those who desperately need it.

The UK government is not doing enough to tackle this issue, and are instead making it even more prominent by changing the benefit system, reducing the amount of families entitled to free school meals and reducing funding to local authorities and therefore services such as meals on wheels.

 We demand the UK government to direct more attention to this crisis, and take action to open and fund more soup kitchens across the country as part of a public project program, as well as give more money to local authorities and ensure that this goes into funding free food organisations.

By Flobster Kaur