FROM April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, 4,262 people received food assistance from York Foodbank through their four distribution centres throughout the city. Of this, 1,647 were children.

York may appear to be a rich city, with the glimmering spires of the Minster towering over a booming tourist industry, but poverty is real – and growing.

We must not sit back while, in York, the poor get poorer and the rich, blind to the poverty on their doorstep, get richer.

The York Food Poverty Alliance, a new group including community organisations, the University of York, York City Football Club Foundation and the City of York Council, is determined to tackle growing food poverty in York.

Over the next year we will shout about the depths and reality of food poverty in the city and work with the community to protect the wellbeing of all those who live in York.

Maddy Power,

Chair of York Food Poverty Alliance and Research Fellow at the University of York, Fulford, York