A rising number of food banks have been set up across the UK to help poor people cope with the soaring cost of living, but less is heard about deprived Britons in the countryside.

It was reported by the British state-run broadcaster BBC that the area of Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, south-west of England, recently opened up food banks to hand out basic products like cereals, rice, tinned soup and vegetables.

James Milton, manager of one of the four food banks in the area said in an interview, “The prettiness of cottages around you does not put food on the table. We will have 8 or 9 or so families that will come in here and we’ll have them in times in tears because they are receiving food items, which otherwise, they would just not have been able to afford.”

He also explained that people who get help from the food bank are forced to make choices of whether to shop for food or pay their essential bills.

According to research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an organization that aims to identify the root causes of poverty in Britain, food in rural areas can cost families with two children £20 a week more than in urban centres.

Travel costs them an extra £40, while gas and electricity forces them to pay an additional £20 a week, compared to their city counterparts.

A recent study commissioned by prominent British charities ‘Church Action on Poverty’ and ‘Oxfam’ also found that nearly half a million people across the UK are now relying on food banks to survive hunger and destitution.

SOURCE: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/21/310171/uk-countryside-suffers-shocking-poverty/