COMMUNI TY
MARGARET SANER, CEO OF CAMBRIDGE CITY FOODBANK, TELLS NICOLA FOLEY ABOUT THE VITAL WORK THE ORGANISATION DOES IN THE COMMUNITY – AND HOW YOU CAN HELP FEEDING THE 10,000
from the harsher extremes of widespread food poverty: you’d be wrong. December 2021 was the food bank’s busiest month ever; and during the year, the team provided emergency nourishment for almost 10,000 individuals or families. Food poverty can affect anybody, and there’s often a fine line between being able to afford to eat and going hungry. “It could be because of a missed benefits payment, reduced working hours, job loss or an unexpected bill,” Margaret explains. “Particularly during the height of the pandemic, we had people coming into our centres who never thought they would need to use a food bank. But, due to furlough or unemployment, they found themselves struggling to make ends meet.”
t’s unusual for a CEO to want to put their organisation out of business, but that’s exactly what Margaret Saner, chair of Cambridge City Foodbank, is hoping for. Beyond providing food and other essentials for those in need, the charity’s ultimate aim is to address the root causes of poverty, thereby eradicating the need for a food bank in the city altogether. She and her team of volunteers have their work cut out. The Trussell Trust, of which Cambridge City Foodbank is a member, gave out a record-breaking 2.5 million parcels to people in crisis in 2021. That’s a 33% increase on the previous year – with 980,000 of those going to children. You might assume that Cambridge, with its relative wealth, would be cocooned
BAGS OF SUPPORT Donations for Cambridge City Foodbank’s recent Christmas Hamper appeal, which provided 640 hampers to families in need
50 FEBRUARY 2022 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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