Foodbanks & I, Daniel Blake

Chris has emailed in (you can post in on the discussion forum once you join!) with the following information:

This 2016 film set in Newcastle is on BBC TV the night before the 1st Six Streets Food Bank collection of the 2019. It shows how the system reduces a man used to working for his living to abject poverty when he becomes ill.

The foodbank scene attracted a lot of attention at the time. It was filmed in a real foodbank in the West End of the city and the organisers there say how the film depicts current daily reality for many people in the area. Apparently, after the film, foodbanks around the country experienced a rise in donations of sanitary items (which can also be donated to Beauty Bank via 40 White St)

You may like to check cupboards and see if there are items you aren’t going to use before their end date or buy a few extra things when you next go shopping. There are collection points in many supermarkets or there is the monthly Red Cross collection across Six Streets (if it’s a one off donation, please drop bag outside 11 Wheeldon Ave marked as a one off or get in touch)

I did read somewhere that it is rare for a foodbank to be short of baked beans!

p.s. If the link doesn’t work (it didn’t for me) general info on that foodbank is here https://newcastlewestend.foodbank.org.uk/