During 2013/14 in the UK

According to the television news this morning 900,000 food parcels were given out in the UK!

Poverty and lack of food here in the UK is resulting in people being admitted to hospital for treatment. What a b....y disgrace David Cameron and oh, yes we are of course all in this together!

There are no doubt some who abuse the food parcel idea, but the very fact that it has to exist at all in modern day Britain is just unbelievable and totally unacceptable.

What say you members? 

The poor should be helped.It's a worldwide problem unfortunately. In Australia , there are 2,500 welfare agencies and churches handing out food parcels. The wages some people on low wages take home aren't enough to cover all the costs of living.Ten percent of the population is living below the povery line.Charities are feeding the homeless.Graziers are living on pasta because they spend all their money buying stock feed to keep their cattle and sheep alive during the long drought.

In the USA, 46,542,005 people received food assistance in the form of food stamps in January 2014.There are hundreds of large food banks handing out food parcels thoughout the US.

I saw six people queuing outside the food bank operating from a church in Halifax a couple of weeks ago. Three men who looked like heroin addicts (and believe me I know what one looks like) all three smoking, and all three holding a can of beer. Three women also in the queue, all three smoking. How much is a package of cigarettes ? At least £5, I can get quite a bit of shopping in Tesco for £5 if I shop around. 

There will be the genuine cases out there, but these 6 did nothing to get any sympathy from me. 

Yes Ruth i have also seen this--we know a lot of people are struggling  but if they spent their benefits on the things they were meant to be spent on there would be no need for food banks.--i know a few who are on benfits and so they should be but i never see them coming out of pubs and betting shops like a lot of people i know.

Hi everyone it's a sad state of affairs when poeple have to rely on food hand outs it's just the same here in Spain the Charity that we support Angels of the Night prepare on a daily basis 2000 meals per day to hand out to the people who have nothing.

We have just had a request for aid in Africa a place on the edge of the Sahara desert to assist children they need 2000 euros per year to run the centre, I suppose each Lodge will chip in 80 Euros that should be sufficient.

I will let you know if it gets approval next week. 

Everyone should be growing an garden, if not for them, then some of the people that need food..same for chickens and small animals...we will suffer worldwide until our population learns to mend for itself in growing it's food and raising it's food sources itself. This time around it's going to have to entail things like weather modification techniques to get over those problems also. Maybe huge indoor grreenhouse growing? Putting on an bubble wrap type plastic eenviromental dome over these small back yards...with hanging shelving that can be motorized and brought down to tend to plants, and raisd back up in the air for extra space in an backyard setting?  the dome could also over winter an garden with several growing seasons... with some heating lamps. My farmer uncle and I went around over this namy years ago, as I was raised garden growing back then. I told him then he ought to try it, corn on the hills and down in the rows between....root crops.  In order to hang on to his farm, he went into trucking as an side line between planting and harvesting season. With an greenhouse he could probably do an third seasonal crop of something.