Foodbank scheme launched in East End

A food bank scheme which gives food to people in need has been launched by churches working together in the East End.

Foodbank is a pioneering project by the Trussell Trust, which provides free food packages for people in crisis and is working with Love London, a four-year initiative aimed at uniting churches to help people in their communities.

Denise Bentley, the founder of the Foodbank in Tower Hamlets, first heard about the scheme through Premier Christian Radio.

She explained: “I was deeply impacted by the levels of deprivation and poverty I witnessed whilst working with the Salvation Army at their hostels in Tower Hamlets. I thought the Foodbank would be a good idea to practically meet the needs of some of the local community, so I decided to approach as many local churches as possible about setting up a Foodbank in Tower Hamlets.”

The group will be giving out long life food, planned to provided enough for meals for three days to people referred to them by groups including charities, health visitors.

Tower Hamlets is the second most deprived borough in London and the third most deprived in the country and suffers from the the highest rate of child poverty in London.

Sarah, a single mother of three boys who received help from the Foodbank through her family support worker, said: “Tower Hamlet’s Foodbank has helped me enormously. Without it I don’t know what I would have done. There were times I would go hungry so that I could feed my children but now I no longer need to do this.”

Volunteers collected Christmassy themed food, such as mince pies outside Tesco in Bromley-by-Bow and Waitrose in Canary Wharf on Saturday, welcoming donations from shoppers.