THE Government has been criticised after a Somerset food bank made an urgent appeal for baked beans.

Ann Gibbs, coordinator of West Somerset Food Cupboard, in Minehead, says it has seen a huge rise in demand over the last year which has hit their stocks so hard they are running out of tinned beans and other non-perishable food.  

She said: “These are families who can just about manage during term time, but are struggling to make ends meet while children are not at school.

“For the first time ever, we recently ran out of baked beans.”

The West Somerset Labour party claim this is evidence the Tory Government is increasing child poverty and calls for an end to the Universal Credit roll out, the public sector pay cap and to better support families in need.  Katherine See, West Somerset Labour secretary, said Labour lifted a million children out of poverty between 1997 and 2010 but claims the Institute for Fiscal Studies expects a million more children in poverty by 2020.

She said: “This Government has not only failed our society’s most vulnerable but also working families who cannot afford to feed their children on low wages and zero hours contracts.  “The public sector pay cap has left people in vital services, such as nursing, struggling to make ends meet.”

Mrs Gibbs said the food bank has been used more since the school’s broke up for the summer and that families are struggling to manage out of term time.  She said she arrived at the food bank to see that 11 boxes of food had been sent to families on one day.

She said: “On the same day, six bags of donated goods arrived and as always, I was touched by the generosity of so many going out of their way to help others.”

The food bank is currently in urgent need of tins of cold meat, beans and pasta, soup, tinned fruit, cereal, rice, tea, coffee, sugar, long life milk and fruit juice.

Mrs Gibbs said she doesn’t know why many of the clients who use the food cupboard need help but says its clear the introduction of Universal Credit has had a lasting effect on families due to payment delays.

Ian Liddell Grainger, Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, is putting pressure on the Government to address the issue.  He said: “It is mainly the issue of the delay in Universal Credit payments that is causing this mess - it can take up to six weeks for payments.

“I have written to the secretary of state and continue to push the Government on this issue as in my view, food banks shouldn’t even exist, we should have a benefits system that works.”

Councillor Leigh Redman, leader of the Labour Group on Somerset County Council, said food banks in areas of full Universal Credit rollout have seen a 16.8 per cent average increase in referrals for emergency food, more than double the national average of 6.6 per cent.

He said: “The effect of a six-week waiting period for payment can be serious, leading to foodbank referrals, debt, mental health issues and eviction.”