Managers of some food banks in Wales say they have seen the number of people using them triple in the past month and have criticised a Toy MP who seem to suggest in the Commons that people just need to learn how to cook and budget. Lee Anderson invited "everybody" on the opposition benches in the Commons to visit a food bank in his Nottinghamshire constituency where, when people come for a food parcel, they now need to register for a "budgeting course" and a "cooking course".
Speaking in the Commons during a debate on the Queen's Speech, he claimed people could "cook meals from scratch" for "30p a day" instead. Asked by a Labour MP if it should be necessary to have food banks in 21st century Britain, the MP for Ashfield said there is not "this massive use for food banks" in the UK, but "generation after generation who cannot cook properly" and "cannot budget".
Mr Anderson hit back at the reporting of his comments, writing on Facebook: "Gutter Press Again. I did not say poor people cannot cook or there is no need for food banks. I said there is not the need currently being parroted out by the MSM (mainstream media).
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"Today I challenged the whole Parliamentary Labour Party to come to Ashfield to visit the food bank I work with. They give food parcels away on the condition they enrol for cooking and budgeting lessons." But managers of some food banks in Wales who have seen a massive increase in users in the past month have hit back at the comments.
Tracey Morgan from the Splice Child and Family Project in Bridgend said that the amount of food parcels they have handed out in the last month has tripled. "It is very frightening for families," she told BBC Radio Wales. "It is not just families on benefits. We are seeing more and more working families where mum and dad are both working. It is just with the increase in fuel, in energy costs, and the food costs now, families are really struggling."
Andrew Butcher is project manager for Taff Ely foodbank. He told the programme: "Mr Anderson is a little bit out of touch. We have seen the need at least triple. How he can say that someone can live on 30p a day just by knowing how to cook is ridiculous. We are in desperate times, especially with the cost of living. We saw the same amount of clients over the last three weeks as we had in the first three months of the year. We are seeing more working families, and that is the key point. We call it inward poverty. These are the families that are just over the threshold. They don't get any benefit support, and yet they have to cope with the rising gas and electric, they have to cope with the increase in fuel and food prices.
"Whereas before it was mainly people on the benefit side, it is now right across the board. There is still a lot of stigma around using a foodbank and some people are still too proud to use them. The food bank exists for anyone who basically needs food. People think they are not entitled, but we would like them to get in touch so we can help."
Steffan Evans, head of policy at the Bevan Foundation in Wales, said: "The MP's comments don't reflect the reality for people in Wales. We know that people don't use foodbanks unless they absolutely have to. It is really disappointing that still at this point that MPs are not aware of that."
The Child Poverty Action Group claimed politicians "would do better to back real-world solutions, like bringing benefits in line with inflation this autumn" and the Trussell Trust charity insisted "cooking meals from scratch won't help families keep the lights on or put food on the table, if they don't have enough money in their pockets". The Trades Union Congress insisted the comments showed "how out of touch Conservative MPs and ministers are with the cost-of-living emergency".
