FOOD campaigners gave stark evidence to the Senedd’s equality and social justice committee today about the rising numbers of people in food poverty across Wales.

Cardiff-based charity FareShare Cymru said that the charities and community groups it works with reported common themes about the financial hardship caused by pre-payment meters.

Sarah Germain from FareShare told the committee that many people on pre-payment meters had not received help from the UK government’s energy support scheme.

She explained that the energy support schemes do not take proper account of the poorest households on pre-payment accounts.

Flintshire County Council’s service manager Jen Griffiths said: “Pre-payment meters are for the hardest up, but are the most expensive.

“This makes pre-payment meters a poverty premium for those people struggling with their bills.”

The Trussell Trust submitted written evidence showing nearly half of people at foodbanks faced hardship due to British government deductions from benefit payments.

New research to be released in full by the trust later this year has found over half were repaying an advance payment to cover an expense such as a broken washing machine.

The second most common reason for a deduction, affecting almost a third of people referred to foodbanks, was having to repay an advance payment needed to cover the five-week wait for universal credit payments.

Well Fed is a social business based in north Wales and ploughs back its profits into providing food to those in need, producing and delivering fresh meals to people of all ages.

Its director Robbie Davison told the committee that when people are in crisis there are no food standards applied to food aid, which was a significant gap in public health.

“Good food now prices out as many as a third of households, with the default being more ultra-processed food,” he said.

He praised the Welsh government’s approach, saying it was easier to speak to about poverty issues than the Westminster government.

“Wales has been more progressive with its approach to food poverty and money comes through far quicker than it does in England,” Mr Davison told the committee.