Children in Cornwall are queuing for baked beans at food banks to get through the summer holiday, while the county remains a seaside playground for A-listers from Taylor Swift to Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. A mix of low-paid, seasonal jobs, poor public transport and declining mental health have placed areas of the county among the most deprived in Europe, with 27,000 under-19s living in relative poverty.
On a visit to a food bank in Camborne, the Mirror watched as children as young as four waited in line to pick up tinned beans, spaghetti hoops and hotdogs to replace their free school lunches. But just 20 minutes down the road is St Ives, a holiday favourite for the likes of former PM David Cameron, Spice Girl Gerri Hallilwell, and Taylor Swift, and where second homes can fetch well over a million.
Hidden deprivation behind the holiday image
Joyce Duffin, who manages the Camborne service, told us: “This is the hidden side of Cornwall that people who come on holiday don’t see – there’s a lot of deprivation and people really struggle. People have this image of Cornwall as a lovely holiday destination visited by the Royal Family – but they forget there's a real backbone of poverty here. It’s become normalised, and that’s sad. You should be able to live on whatever you’re earning, or your benefits - you shouldn’t have to then also come to the food bank.”
The food bank in Camborne and neighbouring Redruth, run by charity Transformation CPR, helps some 500 families a month with 16,000 meals. Many are on universal credit and juggling jobs like caravan cleaning with shop work, while others with young children or long term health issues are forced into unemployment. The town was once affluent, with a thriving tin and copper mining industry, but the last pit shuttered in 1998 and left hundreds jobless.
Families struggling through the holidays
Mum-of-four Vicky Rosevear, 35, a full time carer for her husband, son and father-in-law, began using the food bank last year after being referred by her kids’ school. Choosing tins for their lunches, she said: “Without the food bank it would be a struggle, especially in the holidays. Having to use it [the food bank] is horrible – but it’s getting to a point now where it’s become the norm. A lot of people here [in Camborne] are struggling. The kids are off for such a long time, but to do anything you’ve got to have a bit of money behind you. I get a carer's allowance but that gets taken off my benefits, so I’m no better off.”
It’s a similar story for 41-year-old Vicky Potts, who came with her two daughters aged 10 and nine. Vicky, a former care worker, began using the food bank eight years ago after her relationship broke down and she was forced into temporary accommodation. “I was in Tesco and I didn’t have enough change to buy baby formula. A lady from the food bank happened to see me and said ‘come with me’ and we’ve been coming ever since,” she told us. "I’m on universal credit and it would be a real struggle without the food bank. Coming here has been amazing, everybody is so friendly and they make you feel welcome and that you’re not on your own – I couldn’t get anywhere on my own. It’s embarrassing and uncomfortable having to come. You shouldn’t be relying on it, but when you've got children to feed you’ve got to make sure there’s something in the cupboard, so it’s hard.”
Celebrity mansions just miles from food queues
Up the coast in surfing paradise Newquay, three food banks and a cut-price pantry shop support around 600 people - a third children - each week. But just five miles north, a host of stars have built mega mansions in Mawgan Porth – often dubbed ‘Hollywood on Sea.’ The tiny cliff-top settlement is home to A-listers understood to include Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, actor Jason Statham and Bafta-winner Jamie Dornan. And the Beckhams, actor Stanley Tucci, actress Kate Winslet and Oasis front man Noel Gallagher have been spotted holidaying on its beach.
It’s just a 10-minute drive up the road, but feels like a million miles away for hundreds of Newquay residents, many of whom can’t put food on the table without the help of hand outs. Some areas, like neighbouring village St Columb Major, are so impoverished that many families can’t afford to make the journey into Newquay to the food bank, so volunteers run a pop-up service there and offer home deliveries.
“Quite often, when there’s children involved, parents will come [to the food bank] because the children are hungry - it’s usually that that tips, particularly mums, into coming,” director Zoe Nixon said. "And they always say, ‘I cannot believe I’m here’ – for them it’s a personal failure. But it’s not their fault. We’ve got this idea in our society that if people worked harder and got a better education suddenly the world would be great, but it doesn’t work like that. Most of the people who come to us are some of the most resourceful – mums who are selling everything on Ebay, while doing a job in a shop and then they’re cleaning caravans at the weekend, it’s a constant, constant, juggle. And everything compounds everything - you may start off with one issue, but the knock on of that is what really impacts lives. And it's not just food poverty - we often hear of families without washing machines who are having to hand wash clothes in the bath.”
New community store initiative and calls for change
The Mirror visited a new initiative run by Zoe and her team called Community Stores, which allows hard-up residents registered with the food bank to choose around £30-worth of shopping - including free fruit, veg and bread - in return for a small donation. Visitor Clare Hall, 52, used to work full time but was forced to quit after being diagnosed with heart failure earlier this year, and now relies on universal credit. She said: “People don’t realise the hardship here. I can’t work because it’s dangerous, so everything is really hard for me, mentally as well. Food is difficult too – if I didn’t have this [community store], I wouldn’t be able to eat healthily.”
A recent study - The Pretty Poverty Report (Cornwall Rurality Matters) - funded by the Diocese of Truro via Plymouth Marjon University, revealed deep rural deprivation in Cornwall is masked by scenic landscapes and tourism. It also found traditional government metrics used to measure hardship fail to capture the scale of the problem. Professor Tanya Ovenden-Hope, who led the research, is calling on the government to overhaul the way it measures poverty, to ensure often-hidden communities aren’t forgotten. She said: “It would enable resources to go where they are needed. The placed-based challenges in Cornwall need to be raised in Westminster.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We’re determined to turn the tide on poverty after years of rising hardship. Our recent statistics show that effort is beginning to make a difference - household incomes have risen 5% in real terms, food bank usage has fallen, and food insecurity is down. Our Child Poverty Strategy will lift 550,000 children out of poverty in 2030 – the biggest expected reduction in a single parliament. We’ve also cut VAT on electricity to give families breathing space, increased the National Minimum Wage and are delivering the first ever sustained above-inflation increase to Universal Credit."
