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It’s Friday night in Oldham’s Eldon Street Estate, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.
A car enters the parking lot.
Some women are chatting on one of the stairs in the front floor and suddenly they stop to look at the car.
Some other residents emerge from their apartments and look out the balcony to see what is going on.
Kay Astley delivers free food to many households she owns who cannot afford it
The driver of the car gets out and opens the trunk. He pulls out a decorating table and begins unpacking, carefully arranging the contents as if he were setting up a trunk sale. But this is not a trunk sale.
Bread, bananas, apples, cakes. Some cartons of milk. Some chocolate bars. Cans of beans. Pasta. Soup. He’s putting them all on the table.
For the past few weeks, Kay Astley has come here to give out free food because she says that many of the households on this farm cannot afford to eat.
“People who are working, after paying their bills, they have nothing. So they get by without it,” he said.
“The pandemic has impoverished many people.”
Residents begin to walk toward the car. An old woman brings a shopping bag. A man dressed in a heavy winter coat asks, “Is this for us?”
Others follow and before long there is a queue.
Resident Laura Calder said she was embarrassed when she first went to a food bank
Laura Calder has just moved to this farm and has come to see what happens.
At this time last year I had a steady job in an office. But at the beginning of the pandemic, she was fired.
“I came across Universal Credit and it is very difficult,” he said.
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“I’ve worked in offices my whole life, but now I’m trying to get a job at Tesco. I’m not very lucky.”
For the first time in his life, he doesn’t have enough money to live on, he says.
“The first time I went to a food bank, I was really embarrassed. I had my head down in shame. But then I realized that a lot of other people are in the same situation.”
Oldham was once the most productive cotton town in the world. Now home to one hundred thousand people, it is one of the UK’s most deprived cities.
One in three children lives in absolute poverty and the pandemic it has exposed many of the city’s deep-seated inequalities, such as poor health, lack of job opportunities and housing.
Jessica Degnan is a mother of three and is trying to juggle homeschooling and paying the bills. But being stuck at home is costly and she’s struggling to feed 13-year-old McKenzie, 4-year-old Coby, and 3-year-old Freddie.
Jessica Degnan is a mother of three and is trying to juggle homeschooling with paying bills.
“This week has been very difficult because I have not been sleeping and things just happen in my mind.
“Sometimes I just sit there and my mind doesn’t stop working all the time. How am I going to pay for groceries or if the kids need something? Things just pop out of my head. my life.
Jessica has universal credit. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people claiming has skyrocketed from 3 million in March 2020 to 5.8 million in November 2020, according to the Department of Work and Pensions.
To help families in distress, the government increased payments by £ 20 a week, but that will be phased out in April, meaning thousands of families could further fall into crisis.
At the local library, they haven’t checked out a single book for almost a year. Instead, it’s a crisis center run by a charity called Reel, created by two local women, Charlene Burns and Kim Rogers.
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‘We want this confinement to be the last’
Here people in need can collect food and baby clothes that have been donated by the local community.
“The pandemic has hit people in a massive way. People are struggling to put bread and butter on the table,” Charlene said.
“But they have been fighting for a long time. The pandemic has opened all this up in a big way. That is why it is so important that we come up with a recovery plan that ensures that people are not going to be worse off after this pandemic than they were going to get in. “.
exist Food bank throughout this town, a sign that demand has continued to increase.
At the European Islamic Center in the center of Oldham, a food bank has been set up. Osman Rowe volunteers here a couple of days a week.
“You can tell they’re a little embarrassed when they come in. They’re a little scared. But they’ve reached their wits’ end. So, you know, we give them some food.
“This epidemic brings everything to the fore.
“I think it’s in a fun way, it’s been a great revelation and a great leveler. To let us know where we are as a society. And I think the government has a great job on its hands when it comes to figuring out how we got out of this mess.”
For many people here, life locked up has been out of sight. About 5,000 households live in overcrowded conditions, according to Oldham’s council.
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In one house, we meet four generations of the same family. It is a small townhouse that is too small for so many people. There are at least two double beds in each of the three bedrooms and only a small kitchen and living room on the ground floor.
The family business collapsed during the confinement and, although the family wanted to talk about their experiences, they did not want to be identified.
Sajid, 18, not her real name, said the children here have not been to school since March and had barely attended school at home.
“Due to the closure, it is difficult for us to make money. All the children do is stay home, locked up. It is very difficult. They are not learning much because our home is not the right environment for them. It is much more difficult for them to learn. And you are losing a lot of information. Nobody realizes how difficult it is for families like ours. “
Oldham Council Deputy Director Cllr Abdul Jabbar says the government has not given “enough money” to deal with the pandemic.
This family is not an isolated case, says Councilor Abdul Jabbar, deputy leader of Oldham City Council.
“I think it is an example of many families in Oldham who have been severely affected by COVID-19.
“Their income has been drastically reduced, they are overcrowded, the children are suffering because they cannot go to school and this is having a detrimental effect on their mental health and general well-being.”
“When we talk about recovery, we have to take into account all these issues.
“The government has given money to councils like ours to deal with the pandemic. That is welcome. But they are not giving us enough money. And that’s a problem for the future when we look for a way out of this.
