STRUGGLING families in St Martin are being denied support due to the ongoing closure of a food bank over health and safety concerns, the parish Constable has said.
The facility was set up in the village by volunteers in May 2020 and supplied food approaching its sell-by-date to needy parishioners from the nearby Marks & Spencer store.
It was closed on 1 October after the Environmental Health Department raised concerns about food being provided in this way.
St Martin Constable Karen Shenton-Stone said that anyone using the food bank signed a disclaimer confirming they would use the food immediately or freeze it, but the department was not satisfied.
She said: ‘We are in negotiations with Environment Health about this but we really want to get the food bank going again.
‘We have seen families who genuinely need this support and it has made a massive difference for them. People assume that in the country parishes everyone is wealthy, but that really is not the case.
‘There are people who really need this help and have been through very difficult times due to Covid-19.’
In October Mrs Shenton-Stone told the JEP that she expected the food bank would be up and running again within six weeks after Environment Minister John Young agreed to step in on the matter.
During last week’s States sitting, Deputy Jeremy Maçon and Chief Minister John Le Fondré caused controversy by asserting that some people end up using food banks because they ‘do not manage their finances well’.
Mrs Shenton-Stone said she had been ‘horrified’ by the remarks.
‘There’s always a minority who abuse things but the vast majority of people who use the food bank do so because they need to.
‘I think some people need to get in the real world and realise the difficulties that lower-income people suffer,’ she said.
