Campbell laments ‘massive increase’ in poverty among families with children not ‘having enough food’

Transcript

00:00I just wonder if the Government have taken account of some of the concerns, the extrapolation

00:08of continuing poverty, even with the increase in terms of benefits that have gone on in

00:14the past few years. It appears that, as the Honourable Member has alluded to, there has

00:19been a massive increase in poverty, particularly amongst those families where children, and

00:27we see children being affected not just in the fact that there is insufficient food for

00:34them to eat, but where they are getting food, they are getting unhealthy foods to eat, and

00:41we have seen childhood obesity levels increasing as a result of that. So there is a series

00:47of factors that have to be addressed in terms of this problem. The one issue that I would

00:54want to draw attention to is the work of faith-based groups. None of them are acting

01:02out of any selfish interest, they are simply putting the gospel message into practice where

01:07they are trying to reach communities that otherwise would not be reached. I think we

01:12should all give them their support, commend them, as we do other groups, but we look to

01:16the Government to try and cut through, to try and ensure that the dependency and the

01:21need for people to access food banks is lessened. I very much hope but doubt that we will get to

01:28the point where there is no need whatsoever of any food banks, but we need to minimise

01:33the dependency and the need in communities for food banks. Thank you.