Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 2:01 pm on 5 October 2022.
Diolch yn fawr, Jane Dodds. I think it is important that we see this now as all-Wales—rural, urban, and not just the most deprived, but all families experiencing poverty and disadvantage. It does go back to this huge question of where this £45 billion for tax cuts, which are going to benefit the most wealthy, is going to come from, because if it comes from public services or welfare benefits, this is just going to deepen and deepen.
But just to say, in terms of tackling food poverty, I did announce another £1 million yesterday, but it builds on £3.9 million already allocated this year, and it's actually by working with local authorities, as you know, to develop and strengthen food partnerships. It's very good to hear about businesses getting involved; they want to get involved, some of them, in our warm hubs initiative that the First Minister announced a couple of days ago. You might have heard on Radio 4, on the food programme at the weekend, about Big Bocs Bwyd and the fact that this is also spreading throughout Wales where schools are involved with community food organisations as well. But we're actually saying in my statement that we want to help social supermarkets, community cafes, lunch clubs, cookery classes; we're also talking about making sure that people can have access to things like slow burners. People are actually already not being able to feed their meters, so we have got our Fuel Bank Foundation partnership as well. But I do think—and the Deputy Minister for Social Services is here as well—that all the work that we're doing with the early years and the roll-out of the £100 million is going to make such a difference in terms of reaching out to those younger people and babies. But you know, baby milk, hot water bottles—I mean, this is the day and age we're living in with foodbanks in Wales.