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Hungry in Cameron's Cotswolds: Beyond the 4x4s and classy shops of the PM's own constituency, a food bank is alarmingly busy
In affluent Witney, volunteers are busy preparing Christmas parcels to combat the town's 'grinding poverty'
Witney isn't the sort of place you associate with poverty, homelessness and hunger. That's because it's an affluent market town in the heart of the Cotswolds.
The high street smacks of well-heeled middle England, with high-end boutiques and estate agents offering "substantial" farmhouses in the nearby countryside. There's even a sign outside the butcher advertising "plucked and whole pheasants".
Just five minutes away from this scene of shiny Range Rovers and rural affluence, though, is something that many Witney residents might have hoped was consigned to an earlier age or an area of inner-city deprivation - a busy food bank.
Jo Cypher, a local mother, set up Oxfordshire West Food Bank last April. She is used to visitors remarking on the juxtaposition of Witney's wealth and the "grinding poverty" of the people the food bank supports, especially because the town's Member of Parliament is Prime Minister David Cameron.
Last week, the rise in food bank use was noisily debated in Parliament, but at Elim Church in Witney, where Ms Cypher and her volunteers borrow a room for their supplies, they were busy preparing Christmas parcels with festive treats. "You'd be surprised at how much poverty there is here," she said. "People from outside the area are always shocked, but the poverty here is hidden by the wealth that surrounds it."
The food bank provides dozens of parcels each week after formal referrals from organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Job Centre. Ms Cypher said: "In 2013, we shouldn't have to be here, but life is harder. Bills are going up; food is more expensive and it's easier than ever before to get into debt."
A church campaign highlighting problems caused by the cuts A church campaign highlighting problems caused by the cuts
According to Ms Cypher, who says she set the bank up after struggling herself in the last recession, Oxfordshire West Food Bank relies entirely on donations and counts the local Women's Institute, the town's Freemasons, local firms and a nearby Waitrose store among its biggest and most generous donors.