{"id":10925,"date":"2016-12-22T16:04:52","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T16:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10925"},"modified":"2016-12-22T16:04:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T16:04:52","slug":"cold-hungry-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10925","title":{"rendered":"Cold and hungry this Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nearly half of hard up families who use food banks are at risk of going cold this Christmas, a charity warned yesterday (December 21).<\/p>\n

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The Trussell Trust, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest foodbank<\/a> network, said this holiday season will be its busiest ever and expects to provide more than 1.2 million food parcels in December alone.<\/p>\n

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New research published by Trust, which has received thousands of pounds of donations from generous Unite members as part of the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hope Not Hunger<\/a> appeal, shows that many desperate families are also facing a Yuletide without heating, hot water or lights.<\/p>\n

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The data shows that 46 percent of cash-strapped foodbank visitors use prepaid electricity meters, which means that they risk going without power if they cannot afford to pay their electricity bill in advance.<\/p>\n

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The trust\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief executive, David McAuley, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA crisis in winter for someone on a prepayment meter who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford the bare essentials isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just shocking, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dangerous.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met a grandma who went without food and heating as she waited six weeks for a delayed pay cheque, and a family using candles over the Christmas period because they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to put the lights on.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Poverty stricken families caught in the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bheat or eat\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 trap are especially vulnerable in winter. The situation led the Trussell Trust to set up it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFuel Bank\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 scheme, which provides foodbank users who are on pre-paid meters with vouchers that will keep the electricity on for two weeks.<\/p>\n

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Unite members across the country have raised more than \u00c2\u014121,000 for the Trussell Trust since the Hope Not Hunger appeal began at the beginning at the December.<\/p>\n

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Unite general secretary Len McCluskey praised their generosity and urged everyone to get onboard.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members have shown time and again that they are very generous when it comes to remembering people in crisis,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is shocking to think that in the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sixth richest nation, Trussell Trust foodbanks will feed over 130,000 people this Christmas. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than double the number of people fed when we last teamed up with the charity in 2013.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo person should have to choose between heating and eating this Christmas but without the support of local foodbanks up and down the country many thousands will.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out more about how you can donate to our Hope not Hunger Christmas appeal\u00c2\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly half of hard up families who use food banks are at risk of going cold this Christmas, a charity warned yesterday (December 21).   The Trussell Trust, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest foodbank network, said this holiday season will be its busiest ever and expects to provide more than 1.2 million food parcels in December alone. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,164],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10927,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10925\/revisions\/10927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}