I speak in support of the main motion, backing the right to food. The right to food was set out in the United Nations international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, which the UK Government ratified way back in 1976, and it says: 

'The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement'.

It goes on to say that achieving food security for all is therefore a prerequisite for the realisation of this human right. On this definition—this legal definition—we are failing in the duties under the UN covenant on the right to food, as the growth in foodbanks is testament.

Back in 2010, when I was an MP, when Labour was then in Government, there was one foodbank operating in my constituency of Ogmore—one. It was in Bethel Baptist Church in Pontyclun. We now have foodbanks in every single community. Statistics from the Trussell Trust network highlight the growing demand for foodbanks since 2010 and the age of austerity. And over the past couple of years, it has deepened further by the impact of the pandemic. Some will say, as we've heard here today, that the growth in foodbanks in Ogmore and across the UK is, indeed, testimony to the generosity of volunteers and donations from the public. It undoubtedly is. But let's not hide from the fact that this is also a terrible, terrible, terrible indictment of a decade of punishing, punitive austerity and welfare policies that force the vulnerable, including working families, to rely on foodbanks. And it's a continuing failure, which has been made worse during the pandemic. Anyone who volunteers in a foodbank will say, 'This is a signal of failure by political leaders that they exist at all.' They have to be there; they do not want to be there.

Last year, the Trussell Trust provided its latest report, as has been referred to. It showed the deepening impact of the pandemic on those already devastated by a decade of austerity and social security cuts and diminished support for the low paid. It was bad enough through the 2010s, but foodbanks are now providing 130 per cent more emergency food parcels than they were five years ago. Distribution of emergency food parcels increased by a third on the previous year alone, with 2.5 million emergency food parcels in the twenty-first century distributed to people in crisis over the year. In Wales, the increase is up from nearly 88,000 five years ago to 146,000 emergency food parcels in Wales this year. It's an average of two parcels per minute distributed to families with children—a year-on-year increase of 36 per cent. In Wales, one parcel was given to a family every 10 minutes. This is a disgrace. And this is a tiny part of the whole sorry picture. Not included, as has been mentioned, are the additional over 500 independent food aid providers supported through the Independent Food Aid Network, as well as a range of community food providers also seeing similar patterns. Now, we don't have all the levers at our disposal in Welsh Government to solve this deepening problem, but we do have powerful tools that can help fill the hunger gap left by UK-wide policies. 

The additional £52 million funding from Welsh Government to ensure that eligible pupils receive provision in lieu of their usual free school meals whilst not able to attend school during the pandemic—that really helped, and I saw it on the ground in my own constituency. The additional £5 million for the school holiday enrichment programme too—I've visited those schemes in my own patch; I've seen them work and I've seen the good they do. I recently visited Big Bocs Bwyd—the BBB project—which covers the Valleys taskforce area. It's helping children develop an early understanding of healthy food choices, whilst providing affordably priced food to families in communities in need of support. We can see this in places like Garth school in the Llynfi valley in my constituency; it's making a positive difference already.

Of course, as has been mentioned, we welcome the announcement in the co-operation agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru to put in place arrangements over the next few years to provide a nutritious free school meal to all primary school pupils in Wales—all of them—so that no child should ever be at school hungry, and the Welsh Government's support in my own patch for the incredible food pantry initiative in my area and other parts of the Valleys, delivering thousands of bags of affordable food to residents in Bridgend.

We need the UK Government to play their part; otherwise, we are always swimming against a tide that sweeps away the vulnerable and the low paid. But there is no doubt that we can also do much ourselves through an active Welsh Government, focused on food poverty as well as overall poverty, and the support of this Senedd. Let's make the right to food real for all.