Britain has seen a sharp rise in the number of people requesting food handouts as 'ordinary' working people and families fall on hard times.
In the past year alone FareShare, which redistributes surplus food from major manufacturers and supermarkets to social care charities, has seen a 20 per cent rise in the number of people who can't afford to feed themselves - from 29,000 per day to 35,000 per day.
Oh I don't believe you've seen a rise in people who cannot afford to feed themselves, rather a rise in people asking for free handouts. We live in an entitlement culture, where those who do not have what they would like are encouraged to put out their hands and demand it from others.
It's all very well starting a worthy charity where you re-distribute food that would otherwise have been wasted to the poor, but you need to understand the necessity of keeping strict checks on what you are doing.
When people see the opportunity for a freebie, particularly in these modern times, they will want a piece of that pie for themselves. If you don't restrict your activities to the homeless, but instead let anyone with a story of hardship avail themselves of your services, you will indeed see a rise in demand.
The more you give, the more you will find you need to give, and this is of course going to be followed by shouts for more funding and donations as you demonstrate through numbers, what a wonderful and necessary job your charity is doing, but still it's not enough.
'The big problem is that the welfare state is not reacting fast enough to need.'
Take a closer look at these new people you are helping if you want to see how fast the welfare system is reacting. What kind of trainers do they wear, car do they drive, mobile phone do they use and television do they watch?
The time it takes for benefits payments to come through after a claim has been accepted is increasing, Mr Ravn added, resulting in people going hungry.
Anyone who has lost a job or whose business has gone under, as you say, would not go hungry in the short time it would take for benefits to come through. Realising that they are about to be living on less money than they are used to however, might make the offer of free food quite tempting.
Another problem: A third of the charities surveyed by FareShare are also facing Government funding cuts, with 65 per cent slashing food budgets to stay afloat
At the risk of repeating myself and many others, a charity that survives on government funding is no charity at all. The foodsahre concept, distributing unwanted food to the homeless is a good one. As a charity it would have to be run on donations and volunteers, otherwise it is just another government department.
Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, said: 'At a time of unprecedented demand we want the food industry and the general public to increase their support.'
'We're asking anyone who works in the food industry in any capacity to look at what is happening to their surplus food and to ask themselves a simple question: "Could this food stop someone going hungry?"'
Just like that. But be careful who you distribute it to. If you don't have strict rules on who is eligible for your free food, you will soon have more grabbing hands than you ever thought possible, every one of them needy and entitled.
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