IT is \u201creally sad\u201d that South Yorkshire Police Federation has had to open its own foodbanks, but Chair Steve Kent has asked those who do have spare to donate to help their colleagues.<\/p>\n
The foodbanks, which are in the Federation offices and every major station around the force, were opened over a month ago and are being well-used, Steve said.<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cOur foodbanks are virtually depleted now. We\u2019ve had quite a few officers offering to donate non-perishable items, which is very humbling. If people are able to help, we would welcome them to leave some cans and things like that in areas where the foodbanks are, so as people are picking up food, others are adding stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used some reserves and a little bit of money from other areas to get the foodbank up and running. We\u2019re also looking at external agencies who support emergency service staff, so that if we run out of foodbank items ourselves, we can signpost people to those organisations. We\u2019re looking at a range of options. If people are struggling, they can come to us and either we can provide it or we can signpost them to where people can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said the Federation also wanted to debunk the myths about foodbank use, and officers shouldn\u2019t be embarrassed if they need to use them.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cOur foodbanks are all in discreet places, and our Federation office is completely anonymous \u2013 we\u2019ll give people the door code and they\u2019re free to go and use what they want.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers don\u2019t have to be in dire straits before they come to us. We\u2019re saying to people, \u2018If you\u2019re struggling to put fuel in your car, then take a tenner\u2019s worth of food and that\u2019s a tenner you can put in your car\u2019. So we\u2019re trying to debunk the myths around it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really pleasing to know that people are using the foodbanks, but it\u2019s obviously really sad in another way. But we\u2019re really glad that we\u2019ve done it, because it has made a real difference to people. The fact that we have foodbanks shocks members of the public when they read about it, but police officers are humans too and are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n