OPINION: Rallying to a good cause, Derry style - Editorial

That’s the thought that struck me this week as I stood videoing the crates of donations stacked high at Foyle Foodbank’s HQ in Springtown.

It is a beautiful sight, but also a terrible one. No-one in the modern world should be going hungry; no-one should need to be using foodbanks and yet so many are depending on it this Christmas.

Foodbanks are, as we know, a lifeline to thousands here, and millions elsewhere, and the number of people forced to seek help from them continues to rise. It is a shocking indictment of the failure of the governments to ensure people have enough to get by; that society is truly ‘levelling up’.

Charities have warned repeatedly that many people on and below the breadline are now in real danger of becoming ill and even dying as they struggle to find the means to heat their homes, provide food and pay for other bills. Costs are soaring. Even the ‘cost of living’ tag, as others have pointed out, is in itself horrific. People cannot afford to live, to cover the basic necessities, and as Karen Mullan points out today (page 3) this has gone beyond a crisis, this is about survival for many.

As we have seen time again across the north west, it is local people who are standing up and being counted in this crisis - giving what they can, volunteering, donating groceries, toys and fundraising for a whole host of charities That should give us all hope for a fairer, brighter future, one day.