The Archbishop of Canterbury slammed the "shocking blight" of hunger in the UK on Tuesday.
Justin Welby backed a £1.3million campaign to cut down on food waste in London as part of a drive to tackle hunger in Britain. The Evening Standard's initiative was also supported by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
"I welcome the Evening Standard's campaign on tackling food poverty and waste," said Welby. "Hunger is a complex, widespread and shocking blight on our country and more needs to be done to highlight this issue."
Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green party, was among a number of other MPs to back the issue. She said: "The Evening Standard Food for London campaign has highlighted the shockingly low levels of food waste being redirected to those in need and it is great to see the press holding big business to account."
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said waste was a "shameful reminder" of inequality.
Advertisement
Sponsored
Watch Your Favorite Christian Films, 24/7.
Click Here To Start Your Free Trial Today
The Archbishop's intervention is part of his longstanding support for food banks and tackling hunger in the UK.
He was asked to be President of Feeding Britain in 2014, the campaign behind the all-party parliamentary group on hunger and food poverty. Welby spoke at the APPG's report launch in December 2014 and again at its second report launch a year on in 2015.
He said it was "tragedy" that hunger still exists in the UK and blamed the government's welfare reforms for causing "unnecessary problems" in beaucracy.
