The Trussell Trust have found that foodbank supplies handed out in the West Midlands are up by over 16% since last year.

It’s a desperate situation that, this winter, thousands of families in Nuneaton will have to rely on foodbanks to stave off hunger.

At our event on Saturday with Jeremy Corbyn we collected items for the local foodbank. On Sunday, local Labour members and I took our collection to one of the banks at Manor Court Baptist Church. We discussed ways that the Church can support people with debt advice, the homeless shelter and items required such as tins, biscuits, toiletries and sanitary products.

We are a rich country. We’re better than this, but poverty wages, zero hours contracts and the cruelty of the Universal Credit system are bearing down on ordinary Nuneaton people and creating destitution in our town. This crisis was directly caused by our town’s representatives in Parliament, who have backed this government’s callous austerity programme in the Commons.

Austerity and cuts are a political choice. We need a Labour government that will raise the minimum wage to £10, and end the roll out of Universal Credit. Only then can we reverse the destructive policies that have wreaked havoc on our communities.

Here are the Trussell Trust’s latest figures for the West Midlands:

Supplies handed to adults 39,713;
Supplies handed to children 21,340;
Total supplies handed out 61,053;
up 16.2% on the same period last year