The Daily Mail chose today to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, champion of the oppressed, by publishing this article today. Here’s my response.
Dear Daily Mail,
I’ve got a little boy. His name is Isaac, and he’s nearly three. Like any little boy, he loves cars, balls, and running around. He’s barely ever still.
A few days ago though, he was. I took him to the supermarket to spend his pocket money, and we passed the donation basket for our local food bank. It was about half full – nothing spectacular, in fact, mostly prunes and pasta – and he asked what it was. As simply as possible, I tried to explain that it was for people to give food for other people who couldn’t afford it.
This affected his two year old brain fairly deeply. After a lot of thought, he decided to spend a little bit of…
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Keithpp's Blog 
April 21, 2014 at 11:38 pm |
I skimmed the Mail article, it was not worth more than that.
I found it difficult to comprehend the point they were trying to make.
I cannot see why there needs to be any checks on those using the food banks, or why there are restrictions on the number of visits.
And how do we define abuse?
If people feel a need, why can they not simply turn up?
It is part of the gift society, some give, the gifts find their way to those in need.
https://keithpp.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/sacred-economics/
https://keithpp.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/giving-directions/
View at Medium.com
Food banks are the sign of the times. When benefits are cut in real terms, when people are sanctioned on a whim, there are going to be those in need.
https://keithpp.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/a-sign-of-the-times/
The House was packed when MPs discussed their own pay, almost empty when they discussed food banks.
It takes a small child to see what our greedy grasping politicians with their snouts in the trough and scribblers cannot see.
The net result of the scurrilous article has been to cause an increase in donations to food banks.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/that-mail-on-sunday-article-attacking-food-banks-just-made-t
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/20/food-bank-donations-trussell-trust-mail-sunday
Though I would ask that people follow the example of the little boy and donate direct, not through Just Giving which has the involvement of vulture capitalists out to make a fast buck.
April 23, 2014 at 8:45 pm |
David Cameron’s constituency office calls police on food bank campaigners Bishop of Oxford and Reverend Keith Hebden
https://keithpp.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/david-camerons-constituency-office-calls-police-on-food-bank-campaigners-bishop-of-oxford-and-reverend-keith-hebden/