This festive season, Grazia is supporting the Trussell Trust’s efforts to end food poverty. Georgia Aspinall speaks to women who’ve been forced to rely on food packages
GRAZIA CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN
‘i’m using food banks much more now because of the cost of living crisis. I’m even going to have to go for Christmas, which I swore I’d never do. There’ll be no presents, no excursions to the pub or anything – it’ll literally be a simple meal I’ll have made from scratch, with the help of food banks.’
Máire Birbeck-Whitworth, 51, is a former professional singer and mother-of-two. After losing her hearing and developing a hereditary disability, she’s no longer able to work – something she’s done since the age of 16 – and her husband, an ex-postman, is currently studying full-time to better his career opportunities. They are one family of thousands across the UK that have turned to food banks more this year, due to the cost of living emergency.
For Grazia’s annual Christmas campaign, we’re supporting the Trussell Trust – avital food poverty charity with more than 1,300 food banks across the UK. New figures released this month show that 1.3 million emergency parcels have been provided to people between April and September this year. That’s one third more than during the same period in 2021 and an increase of more than 50% compared to pre-pandemic levels. The number of first-time users of food banks in the Trussell Trust network has shot up to 320,000, and one in five of those referred are in working households.
‘I’m well-educated, I have a master’s degree, but poverty can happen to anybody, whether you’re educated, from a good family, it doesn’t really matter,’ Máire, who is originally from South Africa but now based in Norwich, tells Grazia. She was initially driven to food banks when her first marriage broke down in 2006; suddenly she was a single mother with two toddlers whose father was very detached. As a full-time carer to her first child Mark, who is now 23 and has autism, Máire was able to get cleaning jobs occasionally where she could take her children along, but was no longer able to earn money from singing because of her hearing loss.
Máire decided to go back to university in 2010 to retrain, using food banks throughout her studies when necessary. She earned a BA in design and an MA in curation. But, by the end of her studies, she was forced to leave the workforce entirely after developing a hereditary disability and suffering mental health issues.
‘I started using the food banks in Guildford [where she previously lived] via the church, and I would use them every two months,’ she recalls. ‘That first time, I remember the shame most. Walking in the door, it’s like having a metal hat pus
