THE manager of Newtownards foodbank has called for the return of the Assembly as food poverty soars in the area.
Richard Porter, Project Manager of the Trussell Trust foodbank, has revealed that in the 12 months up until the end of March this year demand for the services provided by his organisation rose by 30% in Newtownards.
Mr Porter said the work of the foodbank is a ‘massive sticking plaster’ and he called for politicians to return to Stormont to address the rising levels of poverty.
Visits to the foodbank, based at House Church on the Crawfordsburn Road, are back to levels last seen during the first year of the pandemic and Mr Porter warned that there are areas of real deprivation within Newtownards.
Mr Porter said the foodbank has been hit by ongoing difficulties including an increase in users, a decrease in donations and an inability to lobby for policies and support from Stormont.
He said Stormont ‘definitely should be getting together’ to help those who are struggling to afford basic necessities.
“It’s definitely a significant problem that we have no legislative grouping that is actually enacting policies,” said Mr Porter.
“We could even lobby to get them to pass bills, but there’s no structures left at the moment to do that. I do think they could make a massive difference and I know individually when I talk to some MLA’s, they definitely have a heart to make sure that the poor are being supported by society but it’s just being there to make those changes.
“There’s been a number of reports on poverty and there’s a poverty forum that I’m involved in which has a conference coming up at the end of June to try and highlight to politicians and other community workers just how great the need is.
“Particularly in our area, there are some pockets of real deprivation in Newtownards that are in the lowest of the groupings that we’ve seen that comes to poverty markers.
“We can keep providing our service as best we can but ultimately, we are a massive sticking plaster, as are a lot of community groups. We’ve covering over the actual underlying issues that only elective representatives can really address properly.”
Recent statistics by the Trussell Trust for April 2022 to March 2023, show that on average across Northern Ireland, food bank usage was up 29% but in Newtownards specifically, usage was up 30%.
Mr Porter said that up until this year, the first year of the pandemic was the Newtownards foodbank’s busiest year.
“We’ve always been quite busy in Ards,” he added. “Maybe some other areas weren’t as busy four or five years ago and are showing increases but we’ve always been busy.
“Across the province, we’re up to 149% from five years ago.”
