British Food Poverty - Should Shame Us All

How is it that in, what is readily accepted to be, one of the more affluent countries of the world, are we in such a state? Now, before any of you get on your political high horses - stop right there, Governments past and present have a great deal to answer for but blame does not entirely lay at the doorstep of number 10 or the big house full of crumbly politicians. I don't want to go into the realms of all that monkey business and global economy as quite frankly it's not going to help you, me or Joe Blogs next door. There has been and always will be people living in sub standard housing, having to contend with food poverty, fuel poverty (as in heating), crap wages and a rubbish standard of living. I said some years ago that we were heading for a recession, and a significant one at that. I felt it prudent that we should tighten our belts and be just a little more thoughtful and resourceful about how we lived. We now have a fruit and veg plot - admittedly we would have starved this year if relying on this produce alone - but you learn fast. We have chickens and ducks, I bake a lot more than in previous years, cook from scratch rather than relying on ready meals, jars and packets, make my own bread, preserves, chutney and even dehydrate foods to store. I like to make do and mend, up cycle, make something tired look refreshed - which often is a thank less task, especially when it comes to trying to refresh myself sometimes! All in all, I looked at things and cut my cloth accordingly, whilst people all around me continued to deny that a recession would come, ignored food and fuel prices going up, still lived at a standard of living that was getting more and more difficult to maintain but remained in this bubble that had to burst sometime - and they have started popping all over the place now. Some people I know, now regularly put their mortgage/rent, council tax, food bills on their credit cards. Now if personally if my situation got to this, I would be looking to cut my outgoings - sky, mobiles, non essential activities or purchases. I would look very carefully at all my expenditure and make sacrifices. But actually these people are so desperate not to lose face or standing within their family/friendship group, that they will not do this in order to keep up appearances - even taking out these horrible payday loans on a rolling monthly basis. To these people I say - for gods sake get a grip and to be honest, I will really struggle to show sympathy when eventually the poop does hit the fan. What bothers me however, are those people who are genuinely stuck between a rock and a hard place. Lets face it, it is not just the problem of the unemployed and low wage earners anymore. It's is now creeping up into the middle income bracket. Those people who work, have travel running costs linked to work, child care, reductions in hours to contend with, seeing their expendable income reducing every month because the cost of living is getting more and more expensive. These people do cut their cloth, they make necessary adjustments to their expenditure, they down brand their groceries to save money, they shop at cheaper alternatives but still money is tight. For instance, it costs us about £600 to fill our oil tank, a further £100 for coal and this will last, if we are carful for 3 months over the winter- that is over £200 a month for heating alone. If we have temperatures that came in 2010/11, then this will not even last 3 months. I will also point out that I don't have the heating cranked up full and waltz about in a t shirt either! A friend of mine said the other day that she didn't know what she was going to do if her finances got any worse. She had already made deep cuts in her outgoings, she shopped in the cheapest places available, yet still sometimes went hungry in order to feed her children. Yet she and her husband both work full time - they are totally and utterly miserable and I can't blame them for being so. Reports from the charities that run food banks say that there has been an alarming increase for their services over the last year. This has to, surely, make us sit up and worry. I know I do, I worry for my friend, my family and in all honesty for my little unit but what can I do? Keep going, that's all.