Robbing Hoodies check out…
The Trussell Trust are the backbone of Britain’s food bank network. They see the scale of the crisis in foodbank Britain, reporting that they handed out 3.1 million emergency food parcels last year, a 94% increase from five years ago. They also claim that 14% of all UK adults have experienced food insecurity in the 12 months to mid-2022, an estimated 11.3 million people. They say “Across the UK, food banks are at breaking point. The soaring cost of living is leaving people with no option but to turn to their local food bank – and the amount of help needed is outstripping donations”.
This year, activists from Everybody Eats took matters into the people’s hands. In response to an urgent call out from a struggling food bank in Hastings, they liberated hundreds of kilos of food from major local supermarkets. They delivered them where they could be redistributed to struggling families.
Dave, 39, who runs the independent food bank, said: “You’ve got people being arrested for stealing because we haven’t got food to give them. I can’t thank you enough, you’ve helped save lives. I can sleep this weekend because I can now give out food parcels to these people who have nothing, and I mean nothing. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you guys, you’re angels, all of you”.
So far Everybody Eats claims to have taken action in fifteen cities across the U.K. Their actions, often in full Robin Hood costumes, have been as simple as removing food from supermarket shelves and placing it in donation bins after the checkouts and as daring as mass shoplifting for open-air barbecues. This led to them being dubbed “anti-poverty zealots” by The Sun.
Could this modern-day version of the nineteenth-century food riots catch on? “There’s no doubt that the population of the UK is undergoing a cost of living crisis unparalleled in the last fifty years. We’re even hearing of black markets in baby formula, now even that vital product is being placed, physically and financially, out of reach in supermarkets. Whatever the solution – we have to act now” said Noel Smith from Everybody Eats.
The Sherriff of Nottingham was sadly unavailable for comment.
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