Why is it so hard to donate actual food to food banks? Let's make it easier to help

CLEARING out the kitchen cupboards isn’t normally grounds for accusations of sexual deviancy, but everyone has a breaking point.

- David Ellis

“Is this some kind of fetish?” my girlfriend asked, as I handed down perhaps the eight or ninth jar of poshed-up marmalade. More came. Alongside other stuff left over from Christmas hampers, soon a large carrier bag was full. “We’ll get a few more useful bits,” I said, “and pop to a food bank.”

London’s foodbanks do an astonishing and much-needed job. A month ago, the Standard reported that the Trussell Trust had distributed 454,000 emergency food parcels through its London networks. The number is a record, and marks a 171 per cent increase over five years ago. Among others, food banks support families with children and those grappling with health conditions, either physical or mental or both. That food bank usage is on the rise ought to be a source of societal shame, and a sharp jab in the Government’s ribs to pull its finger out. Universal Credit can’t be cutting it.