Hundreds of people, including families with children, who depend on food hand-outs do not have the means to cook a hot meal, according to the manager of Barking’s biggest food bank.
Pastor Obi Onyeabor said some 300 out of the 8,574 people who visited the food bank in Abbey Retail Park, London Road, Barking, last year were only taking cold or microwaveable foodstuffs because they did not have proper cooking equipment at home.
As a result, Mr Onyeabor has decided to install two ovens and two sets of hobs at the centre and extend its opening hours to allow people the time to cook their meals and take them home with them.
“The situation at the moment is bad and it’s getting worse,” said the 42-year-old, who expects to have the new equipment ready by the first weekend in October.
“I have come across a lot of people who when we give them food they would be selecting the ones they can take. It’s sad when you see people who are hungry and need food but they can’t take it.”
He said the number of people coming to the food bank had “really increased”. It now serves about 160 people a month and in June the number of days it was open to the needy were extended from two to five.
Mr Onyeabor, who is the pastor at Grace and Faith Church, Barking, said the circumstances of visitors to the food bank had also changed over recent months.
“There’s a rise in the number of people who are working but [what they earn] isn’t enough for them to live off. Before it was mostly unemployed people,” he said.
Barking MP Margaret Hodge said the fact some families are unable to “warm a meal at home” was a “damning indictment of a government that does not care and an economy that doesn’t work for ordinary people”.
She added: “The food bank is doing a fantastic job and it is heartening to see the community looking out for one another, but we should not be in the situation, in one of the richest countries in the world in the 21st century, where it is necessary for a food bank to exist.”
Barking and Dagenham Council confirmed it did not have a duty to provide food allowance for people placed in temporary or interim accommodation, but it does issue food vouchers “for people to collect emergency food from the Barking Food bank”.
The centre, launched in 2012, is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10.30am to 12pm.
The hours will extend to 2.30pm once the equipment, bought with donations from individuals, is set up – expected to be the first weekend in October.
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