Earlier this year my mum started volunteering in a foodbank in Cornwall. She was telling me about the process, exchanging vouchers given to the attendees by local agencies for boxes for a family, a couple, a single person. People are allowed to swap up to five items from their box. Consumer choice in action!

I was reminded of this when I saw these images on a photographer’s blog about life in Deptford. That’s not my mum! She’s much more glamorous. But the picture made me think again about what it must be like to go to a foodbank for your ‘shopping’. The board below – from 2012 – shows how numbers using the foodbank have grown year-to-year. Reports strongly suggest that much of that increase comes from people who are IN work. People being left behind in the shaky recovery by low wages and unfair contracts.

It’s so depressing to think that many people in work are having to turn to charities to feed their families. I’ve just Googled ‘Volunteer foodbank’ and scores in my local area came up. You can help out by sorting food for boxes, like my mum did, or just by donating food when you do your weekly supermarket shop. No ice bucket required.