Friends in call to end hunger by 2030
Quakers join others to urge the government to act now to end hunger in the UK
Quakers are among a coalition of national and local charities, anti-poverty organisations and faith groups who have urged the country’s leaders to act now to end hunger in the UK.
The End Hunger UK coalition, of which Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) is a partner, has called for a government-led plan across all departments to tackle the causes of food insecurity and to act now to meet the UK’s 2015 pledge to end hunger by 2030.
The coalition wrote to the leaders of all the major parties at Westminster before a gathering at Sheffield Cathedral on 16 October to call for immediate action. The event included people with personal experience of food insecurity and a choir consisting of food bank members and supporters in Sheffield. Pete Wilcox, the Bishop of Sheffield, said it was an ‘outrage’ that ‘hundreds of thousands of people every week live in food poverty’.
Niall Cooper, chair of End Hunger UK, said: ‘The UK has no shortage of food. The problem is one of incomes – too many working and non-working households are being hamstrung by insufficient wages and a benefits system that does not cover people’s essential costs.’
Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust, which supports a network of food banks across the UK, said: ‘Nine in ten of us think hunger in the UK is a problem. That’s a clear call to action from people across the country… Hunger in the UK isn’t about food. It’s about money, and people not having enough of it.’
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