“We’ve got people who wait outside of the bins by Tesco and Iceland waiting for them to throw away food, standing with bolt cutters to cut off the locks to see what food they can find.”
These are the words of the founder of Brixton Soup Kitchen, Solomon Smith, describing the rising in desperation he is seeing among local people.
Black communities are braced to face the worst of the cost of living emergency in the coming months with many more black families pushed into poverty, cold and hunger.
Alarming government data published last month showed that black communities are four times more likely to suffer food shortages – or to put it more bluntly – starvation.
Add to the mix that unemployment in black communities is at around 9% – over double the white average – and the picture becomes even more serious.
This might sound like a horror story right out of Dickens’ London but this sobering news is becoming reality, and is a scathing indictment of so-called ‘modern Britain’ in the 21st century.
What’s frightening is that the actual figures of those suffering could well be higher.
In fact, community activists and charities are all sounding the alarm bell as energy bills rocket, along with food prices, and inflation – currently 7% – far outstrips wages.
Numbers of those attending the famous Brixton Soup Kitchen have doubled in the last year, according to Smith. And more black people are suffering mental health issues, experts say.
“Brace yourself” is their message, because if we thought years of austerity were bad, things are about to nosedive.
The number of food banks expanded massively since the financial crisis over a decade ago, and the need has continued to grow during the ‘recovery’. The Trussell Trust alone has as many food banks in the UK (1,200) as there are McDonald’s restaurants.
The Trust predicts the need for emergency food will expand yet further as the cost of living emergency bites.
POVERTY IS A KILLER
Smith, who founded the much loved Brixton Soup Kitchen in 2013, knows all about the immense pressures on black families especially, and they offer African and Caribbean foods.
He said: “We get a lot of people saying that if it wasn’t for the Soup Kitchen supplying them with groceries, it would be another week without them eating. We get a lot of parents coming in saying that they’ve never had to steal before but they’ve had to go to the market to literally steal vegetables and food.
“I have parents coming up to me in tears, telling me that if it wasn’t for the Soup Kitchen their kids wouldn’t have had uniforms.”
Poverty is a killer, and the inability of families to properly feed themselves and heat their homes will erode people’s physical and psychological health. It has and will continue to cost lives.
Some London boroughs with the highest black populations, and Birmingham, have among the worst mortality rates.
While Britain often prides itself on being a so-called first class democracy, it is evident that black communities are often living as second class citizens.
BASIC SURVIVAL
If Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic revealed and further exacerbated racial inequality in Britain, then the impact of the cost of living crisis will represent the equivalent of throwing chip fat into the fire.
In plain terms, the impact of struggling for basic survival during a cost of living crisis, set against a national backdrop of undeniable institutional racism, has and will continue to severely impact all areas of life for black people.
Abena Oppong-Asare, MP for Erith and Thamesmead, one of London’s poorest areas, said that black and Asian communities were already suffering before the pandemic.
She said: “The cost of living crisis isn’t a new thing. We’ve had this Tory government now for the last decade and inequality has widened. When the pandemic happened I was getting contacted by people that were losing their businesses that had been running since the 1980s which had collapsed overnight. It’s tragic.
“The government needs to do something like a race equality strategy, and a national strategy for health inequality. We need an urgent national discussion about this.”
Mackayla Forde, an academic, activist and artist, told The Voice that black women will bear the brunt. “Black women are at the intersection of racism and sexism.
“Not only do we occupy the vast majority of low paid, service or care giving jobs, often gendered work, but we are also more likely than any other ethnicity to be the head of a single parent family.
But she adds: “Black people have always found a way to survive. Against all the odds, we have found ways to adapt. Online, black women have come together to create safe spaces where they can offer and obtain help. Black women continue to knit supportive networks together out of the fabric of a disintegrating society”.
Desperate times have resulted in new initiatives springing up to support families in need, as community groups attempt to plug the gaps which the state has neglected.
Poet and education consultant Kat Francois runs a weekly writing course called “how to write s**t away’ using creative writing, journaling and fitness as a wellbeing and creative tools.
She explained: “I started offering fitness classes as a response to keeping our community who were disproportionately affected by Covid as healthy as possible.“
“I work mainly with young people, so the writing workshops presented me with a great opportunity to regularly work with adult women. Both endeavours have had a good response and I have had consistent attendees”.
Were it not for community led programs, the experience for many, particularly through the pandemic would have been very different. These are the real heroes, without capes.
Many community workers believe that far from being a source of shame, our communities lifting each other up in times of need should fill us with pride.
Other communities do it, and we have to ensure we do the same to survive these next months and years, they say. We owe it to ourselves, young people and future generations.
HOW TO SEEK HELP:
Lots of people are often unaware that they may be entitled to financial support including help with debts.
CITIZENS ADVICE NATIONAL HELPLINE:
England – 0800 144 8848
Wales – 0800 702 2020
DEBT AND MONEY ADVICE:
Support with debt, housing and credit score.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/
GRANTS AND BENEFITS
Struggling to pay energy bills? You might be eligible for grants.
SUPPORT WITH LIVING COSTS
If you don’t have enough money to live on your local council can help.
HYGIENE BANK
If you are struggling with essentials for basic hygiene , the Hygiene Bank can help
MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT
If you or someone close to you is struggling with mental health these organisations could help
THE BLACK AFRICAN AND ASIAN THERAPY NETWORK
https://www.baatn.org.uk/well-being-health-and-healing/
MIND
HELP WITH HOMELESSNESS
If you are struggling with homelessness or may become homeless
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