Callum Wilson grabs a tin from the Gateshead Foodbank crates and has a flashback. “That’s mine!” he says. “I’d hunt out the tinned fruit with the cherries and fruit salads in our food parcel. My favourite.”
The England and Newcastle forward admits he used to be embarrassed to tell teammates his mum and five brothers and sisters struggled so much they needed donations to make ends meet.
That was 20 years ago and now he’s a World Cup striker, helping to pack food boxes for some of the 10,000 needy in Gateshead. “I have realised there’s no shame, that it is part of my journey,” says Callum.
“A foodbank in Coventry was part of my struggle. Players say to me, ‘Really, that was you?’”
Callum with the foodbank teamNow 31, Callum is at the peak of his career, netting 11 goals so far this season for Newcastle as they bid for the riches of the Champions League next season. But part of him will always be that kid in Coventry – “a diamond in the rough”, he says – who found a way out.
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Callum is speaking out as The Trussell Trust announces today nearly three million emergency parcels were given out nationwide in the year to April – up 37% as the cost of living crisis bites. Callum recalls: “One day some people turned up and gave us food parcels. We didn’t ask but someone had spotted we were in need.
“Mum was saying, ‘Where is it from?’ That proud ego thing, where you want to provide for your own family. That was when she realised we needed help. She gave us all the love, tried her best. I also remember we’d have post office stamps to get bread and milk.”
Callum helps with packing household essentialsCallum chats to Gateshead Foodbank chair Jackie Beeley, who tells him: “We’ve had a 50% increase in demand, a fall in donations and it costs £5,000 a week to help everyone.”
The striker says: “Footballers are privileged. I am, but I wasn’t always in that situation. In life, I believe people should be receiving the essentials – bread, milk, pasta – to cook. Times were hard. Sometimes it seems too big a task and you need help. It is demoralising.
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“It is difficult to talk about. I will never disrespect my mum and what she has tried to do. Being loved and cared for, that side was there. But trying to feed that many growing kids was difficult.
Callum understands how it feels to need the help of others
The star has been helping out at a foodbank in Newcastle“I’d go to school with holes in the bottom of my trainer. Playing football in the yard, missing a shot, kicking the floor and being in agony because your toe has gone through your shoe. To not get new pair trainers when they had a hole in, you knew you weren’t as fortunate as your friends. Being the oldest of six, I wanted to get out of that environment and provide for my family. Get to a point to give back. When I reflect on my journey, I got here against all odds – especially nutritionally.
“Now when there’s adversity, it is a walk in the park, because once you’ve wondered where your next meal is coming from a setback in football, or a defeat, is part of a bigger picture.”
Things got easier as Callum got older. He said: “I eventually got a trainee wage at Coventry City and filtered that back into the family – £90 a week! It stretched a long way.”
Callum in a more familiar role for Newcastle United (Getty Images)Callum could shy away from his past. But peers like Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata have set the tone for high-earning footballers wanting to have a social conscience. “I don’t do this politically. It is a humanitarian thing for me,” he adds. “A lot of footballers find it difficult to talk about. You have to be comfortable in your skin and where you are in life to speak about the past.
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“For me, being a father, reaching 30, you become more open. I am not afraid any more. Before, it might dent your ego. But now I am embracing it.
“I am here because foodbanks had a part to play in my life. Why speak out? I have children myself, 10 and five, they are growing and they think money grows on trees.
“New trainers, click of the fingers. I want to make them and everyone realise we are fortunate and lots of people need help. Most of all, I want to highlight the volunteers here, promote them, help get donations.”
And to drive his point home, Callum – celebrated for scoring 123 club goals for Coventry, Bournemouth and New-castle, and notching six caps and one goal for the Three Lions – adds: “I was that child once.”
* Donate to Gateshead Foodbank by Texting GATE05 to 70070 to give £5, or visit gateshead.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-money/
Service strain as demand up 37%
The Trussell Trust handed out 2,986,203 emergency food parcels in the past year as more and more desperate families turn to the charity for help.
Shock figures out today reveal a 37% surge in demand across its 1,400 foodbanks from the year 2021-2022 as they provided enough items for 26.8 million meals.
It is more than double the amount in the same period five years ago and some 1,139,553 parcels were for children, up from 835,879 the previous year and a rise from fewer than 500,000 in 2017-2018.
The annual statistics also showed new referrals were up 38% with 760,000 turning to a foodbank for the first time.
Rising demand was greatest in the North East, which saw a 54% increase.
Brian Thomas, chief executive at South Tyneside Foodbank, said: “We’re seeing a high number of families needing support as people struggle. Food donations are not keeping up with the increase in need, it’s a real pressure cooker situation for food banks.”
Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie said the “figures tell a really tough story that has been developing over a long period”. The charity wants the Government to pledge that benefit rates will always be enough for people to afford essentials. Ms Revie said: “The continued increase in parcel numbers indicates that it is ongoing low levels of income and a social security system that isn’t fit for purpose forcing more people to need foodbanks, rather than just the cost-of-living crisis or Covid.”
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the crisis is the “price families are paying for 13 years of Tory economic failure”.
The Government said: “We recognise the pressures, which is why we have uprated benefits by 10.1% and made an increase to the National Living Wage.”
Tories behind crisis a decade in making
By Ros Wynne Jones
Ten years ago, I was involved in a massive campaign against the growing scourge of food poverty in this country. We launched a viral petition, helped stage a debate in Parliament and won the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury as we sounded the alarm.
The shameful figure we spoke about then was 300,000. That was the number of food parcels the Trussell Trust had handed out in the previous year, as it launched a £1million appeal for 2013.
The Trussell Trust announces today that last year it gave it out 2,986,203 parcels – more than a million of them for children. Over the next few days, you will hear Tory excuses for the state of food poverty in Britain today. But truthfully, this crisis is not an accident. It has been a decade in the making.
Ten years ago, they were warned cruel welfare reforms would destroy the fabric of our social security safety net and plunge millions into poverty. Meanwhile, there has been a stubborn refusal for anyone in any party to admit benefit levels have long ago been outstripped by costs. Hunger has increased inequality because hungry children cannot learn.
And all the while, the party of the rich let the big firms to plough their poverty-wage jobs deep into our economy.
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