Agenda item
Food provision for vulnerable families
A presentation to be made at the meeting.
Minutes:
Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children and Schools introduced this item stating the pandemic had intensified the challenge to ensure children do not go hungry, especially when out of school. He said vital food support had been made critical during the pandemic and work was ongoing with the voluntary sector and other providers to ensure networks, such as schools could play a key role in tackling food hunger.
He said at the early stages of the pandemic there had been different systems of free school meals support, with various government schemes, each differing in their complexities. However, the government had now issued a block grant to support vulnerable families during term time as well as during school holidays, allowing Councils to provide targeted support to vulnerable families.
The Sub-Committee heard from Ms Ellie Kershaw, Tackling Poverty Programme Manager, Ms Elizabeth Marshall, Bow Food Bank and Mr Paul Jackson, Headteacher of Manorfield Primary School.
Ms Ellie Kershaw gave a presentation providing statistical information on the number of people claiming benefits and the impact Covid-19 was having on vulnerable families and individuals. She said the number of households that are claiming Universal Credit in Tower Hamlets had risen quite significantly, with a substantial number of younger people moving onto Universal Credit. She said this had nearly doubled since February 2020. Likewise, there had been a rise in the number of households claiming council tax reduction and housing benefit. Ms Kershaw said claims for housing benefit had increased by 2000 cases, although she expected this to be far worse, because the figure did not include universal credit claimants. She said the DWP did not share data on Universal Credit however there was a cross-borough, London group of authorities who were asking the DWP to share the data, in order to gain a better picture of what was going on.
Ms Kershaw provided members with an update on what the local authority was doing to tackle food inequality and said schemes had been introduced to provide families with support. For example, over Christmas every child eligible claiming a free school meal would receive a £25.00 voucher to use in a local supermarket. She said schools had also been asked to identify those not eligible for a free school meal but who they were concerned about. Ms Kershaw said the vouchers would be provided to 18,600 children and said this was being funded by the DWP winter Covid grant.
Members heard from Ms Marshall of Bow Food Bank who said the Bow Food Bank was an independent charity which had been set up about six and a half years ago. It initially operated out of Bow Church but had witnessed an increase in the number of people using the food bank with an excess of a 100 people a week - many families with children. She said this resulted in the charity setting up another food bank in Bethnal Green however, the number of people visiting kept growing from 100 a week to 200, to 400 a week. This resulted in the charity moving to a larger premise and they are now situated in the Bromley-by-Bow centre. She said when the pandemic hit, the numbers increased to approximately 1000 adults and over 1000 children a week. Ms Marshall said the most recent figures showed 300 families, 423 adults and 830 children every week. She said many of the people were in desperate need. The centre opened at 7:00 a.m. and there would be a line of people waiting in the cold and rain, for a bag of food.
Ms Marshall said the charity had stuck to its principles in that it did not require a referral or evidence of status to help anyone. She said the charity had benefited from the council’s hub provision and the DEFRA grant. Ms Marshall explained they were worried about if they had enough money to afford the food they needed and ultimately had cut the number of items available plus have had to register people so to limit the number of visits. They were campaigning to gain political interest, which had been supported by the Mayor and MP Rushanara Ali. Ms Marshall said Ms Ali had appeared on the BBC Sunday Politics show and a short film was shown about the work undertaken by the charity. She said they heard some heart-rending stories daily, of people struggling with food poverty. She said the charity aimed to set up a Community Pantry, which the Council was supporting and hoped to have a more sustainable and cooperative provision in the long-term. Ms Marshall said sadly food banks were here to stay and required major funding going forward.
Lastly, the Sub-Committee heard from Mr Paul Jackson, Headteacher of Manorfield Primary School. Mr Jackson said the school was situated near the Teviot Estate in Poplar. He said when he took over the school about five years ago, he was struck by level of poverty that existed and the lack of hope and positivity within the community. He said he was determined to change this by helping families who faced challenging circumstances. The school’s intent was to support the children and to overcome barriers no matter what the difficulties were.
Mr Jackson said when the first lockdown happened in March 2020, the school knew it had to support families with access to food. He said it was crucial the school did not lose contact with families and vulnerable children. There were low levels of key workers and a high number of unemployed in the community, so the school knew it had to engage with families even before the government had made clear their approach to food vouchers. He said there was the possibility the school would need to fund this through their own school budget.
Mr Jackson stated that at the initial stages of the pandemic, the school felt it could provide better value for money by providing actual food rather than a voucher, so this is what it set out to do. This was at the time when there were long queues and empty shelves in supermarkets. He said there was also concern about the potential misuse of vouchers, being used for inappropriate items. Mr Jackson informed members that during the first week of the lockdown, the school had provided 100 to 200 food parcels. This was mainly though food donated to the school and food bought by the school rather than money spent on food vouchers. This occurred for the first few weeks until it became clear the government would be funding vouchers, through central funds.
Mr Jackson said they continued to support families through their food distribution programme, in addition to the government vouchers, by identifying families who were in need of support but had not registered for free school meals, and low income families were not entitled to benefits but were still experiencing food poverty. He said many families fell into this category and therefore the school decided to continue with its programme. The school in partnership with the hospitality industry worked to provide food to vulnerable families. For example, Hovis who are based in Forest Gate, provided a lot of bread which was distributed with the food packages. Mr Jackson said at one point the food programme was feeding over 400 to 500 families per week.
Mr Jackson said he assisted other schools to replicate their model of food distribution however at this point of the lockdown, the snag was wholesalers had shut-down and new accounts could not be set up with them. Therefore, the Manorfield School and charity become a hub whereby it made purchases on behalf of other schools and received food donations which it distributed to approximately 20 schools. At its peak, they were distributing around 1000 food parcels a week, over a four to five-week period which continued until September 2020 when schools were looking to reopen. Over the summer holidays, food distribution involved a mix and match approach. Manorfield school accessed the Council’s hunger fund and supported families at Manorfield and Gorsefield Residential Centre by providing activities and food at summer camps.
Mr Jackson continued stating that in September the priority changed to bringing children back to school. He said the logistics involved in distributing food and identifying families had been a challenge, but it brought home to roost the number of families which require help. He said he concurred with Ms Marshall’s assessment that families were in desperate need of food welfare. He said families came to the school because they had a social connection with the school and whilst it could be argued that some had used the service because it was free, his view was that if it helped find one family in genuine need then it was worth the effort. Mr Jackson said the food distribution programme had been scaled down since September however the school would continue to accept food donations and have an ad hoc offer in place for families.
In response to questions from members the following was noted:
· The Chair praised the efforts of Mr Jackson and Ms Marshall and said there was a social stigma attached to accessing food banks and asking for help, when it was needed. She said she took to heart the comments made that it was better to have a general offer of assistance accessible to everyone rather than those that targeted vulnerable families experiencing food hunger.
· In response to the distribution of food vouchers to schools, with a week to go to the Christmas holidays, Ms Kershaw said the late government announcement on the Winter Covid Fund, meant a mayoral decision was required in order to get the initiative going because of the amount of money involved. She said once the decision had been made, the vouchers had to be ordered. She said the vouchers had arrived and three members of her team were racing to get these out to schools today.
· Regarding the supermarkets in which they can be used, Ms Kershaw said Tesco and Asda were the two supermarkets which had agreed to work with the Council. No response had been received from Sainsbury and Iceland did not offer vouchers at all. She said a discussion was required on food vouchers and if they were the best way forward or if food should be provided directly, in the February half-term.
· Councillor Salva-Macallan commented that timely communication was needed about food vouchers, as parents and schools needed to know what was available.
· In response to what capacity is there to think about food in the borough differently and use existing sites for distribution, such as sites previously used by the meal of wheels service, Ms Kershaw responded saying her team had been reactive to every pot of money available, since the pandemic hit. A member of staff left the team but she was hoping to recruit a food poverty officer as this was what was needed.
· Mr Jackson added that schools were often seen has a safe place by families and it was easier for them to come to the school and collect food, rather than go to a food bank, which had stigma attached to it. Mr Jackson said the pandemic had provided an opportunity to think creatively about how food is prepared and distributed. He said school kitchens and chefs from the hospitality industry wanted to collaborate, but this required leadership and innovation.
The Chair thanked all the participants for this item and summarised the discussion as follows:
- The need to provide broader services to combat stigma.
- Timely communications so that messages can reach people as soon as possible
- To think differently about how funding can be used for next summer to ensure provision is more sustainable.
Supporting documents: