A food bank founder has condemned the nation’s situation as having so many people unable to feed themselves and says the call for food is getting more urgent and happens more often.

Gary Nash, co-founder of the Eat or Heat food bank, said it was unacceptable that people in one of the richest countries in the world should have to ask others for food.

He said the number of referrals to Eat or Heat, which operates from Queens Road Community Centre, Walthamstow, is increasing rapidly, from up to five a week in late 2011 to around 30 a week currently.

He said: “This country should be ashamed of itself, we shouldn’t be in this situation.

“The situation is getting more desperate, looking at the bags in the cupboard now I have less food to give than normal.”

He added that a referral could either be an individual or a family and that the 23 referrals so far this week actually meant 52 individuals, a mixture of adults and children, had been helped.

If the food bank runs out of food they have no option but to turn away the people who come to them.

The bags they give out usually provide main meals for up to three days, but if food runs low it has to be reduced to one or two days worth of food.

Mr Nash said of every food recipient he’d asked to speak to the press each one has declined.
He said: “People receiving food are normally very embarrassed.

“It would be hard to have to go to someone to ask for food and tell them I can’t feed myself."

Mr Nash’s comments come off the back of an announcement that people using food banks in London have tripled in the last year.

The Trussell Trust, the UK’s main provider of food banks, said 24,415 adults and 17,649 children used their food banks in 2012-13.

In 2011-2012 the figure was far lower, with 8,056 adults and 6,513 children recorded using their food banks.

Eat or Heat relies on donations and is run by volunteers.