CAP urges politicians to make 'serious' response to UK hunger crisis

The ecumenical campaign Church Action on Poverty (CAP) has welcomed the report of the All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Food Poverty and Hunger launched today.

Director of CAP Niall Cooper said: "Frank Field, Bishop Tim Thornton and the Inquiry team are to be congratulated for a serious and thorough examination of the underlying reasons for the huge growth in food poverty and hunger in recent years. It is no longer possible to deny the scale of the problem, nor the many and complex reasons for it - including chronic low pay, benefit problems and benefit sanctions.

"Our call for a Parliamentary Inquiry in the 'Walking the Breadline' report back in May 2013 has been vindicated. The Inquiry's report confirms what people have been telling us for the past 18 months: there is a very real crisis of food poverty and hunger across the UK, the like of which we have not seen in most of our lifetimes, and never expected to see in what is still one of the wealthiest countries on the planet.

"This issue of ensuring all our citizens are fed transcends party politics. It is not an issue of left or right, but of basic humanity. It is now time for both Government and Opposition to go beyond scoring political points, and to take seriously the question of how we as a nation ensure that no one need go to bed hungry.

"The Parliamentary Inquiry makes many serious recommendations, and it is incumbent on politicians to come up with a serious response."

Read 'Walking the Breadline' here: www.church-poverty.org.uk/walkingthebreadline/info/report/walkingthebreadlinefile

Church Action on Poverty is an independent ecumenical charity, founded in 1982 and dedicated to tackling the root causes of poverty in the UK. For more information see: www.church-poverty.org.uk