Mark Lazarowicz MP for Edinburgh North and Leith pointed to the growing number of families turning to food banks for help as an indictment of the Chancellor’s claim today in his autumn statement that his ‘economic plan is working.’
Mr Lazarowicz recently helped local church volunteers from the Leith food bank with a food collection at Tesco in Leith. The food collection was organised in conjunction with food bank charity the Trussell Trust and food redistribution charity FareShare. Tesco donated an extra 30% to the food bank, on top of the goods given by customers.
He said: “The Chancellor’s economic plan is certainly not working for the families who will be forced to look to food banks for help this Christmas. Initiatives like this one in Leith show the strength of community spirit here in Edinburgh but it is an indictment that they should be needed at all.
“The Chancellor talked today of ‘difficult decisions’ on spending and ‘living within our means’– parents struggling to meet fuel and food bills are all too familiar with that.
“According to Citizens Advice Scotland half of those helped by food banks are in work – they will be much less sure than the Chancellor that the economy is heading in the right direction.”
Mr Lazarowicz is also backing the campaign by Unite, the Daily Mirror and the Trussell Trust to raise funds for food banks to help families in crisis this Christmas and to call for a Parliamentary debate on the issue. (See below for details of this campaign).
The new Leith food bank was launched in October as the result of an initiative by local churches and food banks across the UK have trebled in number since 2009: an illustration of the comments by the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice today that ‘the upward trend is not filtering down’ and that ‘despite the good news on growth, millions are still struggling.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
