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I needed to use a food bank after graduating – now I want to end the stigma

Steven, who now runs his own therapy business, struggled to make ends meet after graduating.

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July 1, 2026
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I needed to use a food bank after graduating – now I want to end the stigma

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ByFelicity EvansWales money editor

Published56 minutes ago

A therapist who needed to use a food bank to feed his family when he left university is now volunteering to help make the experience easier for others.

Steven Crichton, from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said he and his partner Kat had skipped meals to make sure their children “had full lunch boxes” but visiting the food bank was “way more dignifying” than he had expected.

Steven lost his father to suicide when he was six years old and subsequently faced his own mental health issues as well as an addiction to heroin.

He said counselling helped him to turn his life around and inspired him to go to university in his thirties to qualify as a therapist, but it was a struggle to make ends meet for a few weeks when his course ended.

He now runs his own business and uses his past experiences to help charities, like food banks, make their services more user-friendly.

Steven, a man in a mortar board hat and academic robes holding up his graduation certificate. He has a short ginger goatee.

‘I’m strong, I’m not weak’

Steven said after his dad took his own life, “no one really knew how” to talk to him and he carried the belief that “bad things happen to me” for a long time.

He said “shame and stigma” could stop people reaching out for help. But when he went to counselling 26 years after losing his father, he realised it was the right profession for him and went back into education.

As a mature student at the University of South Wales, he met his partner and they enjoyed a whirlwind romance.

“We moved in together in her first year, by the second year we had a baby… on my graduation day I proposed to her,” he said.

Kat standing with her hands over her mouth looking at Steve on one knee holding a ring. Four people stand behind holding signs saying 'Will you marry me?'

The family had a tough few weeks after Steven graduated, but the University of South Wales supported him to start his therapy business.

He initially found it difficult to ask for help, but said it was important to “re-frame” feelings of shame or failure about visiting food banks.

Steven said the experience of visiting the Taff Ely food bank was “uplifting” because people were very welcoming.

“I was like, this is a victory,” he said, “I’m strong, I’m not weak. I’m courageous.”

Steven now volunteers for the lived experience group at Taff Ely food bank, as well as supporting other charities.

The group’s suggestions have led the food bank to stop using marker pen on their carrier bags, so that they cannot be identified as having come from the food bank, and to give visitors the chance to select some of their own food.

“It gives people a bit more independence and autonomy,” he said.

“They can pick their own items, they can trade one thing for another, there’s still a certain allowance but it saves food waste.”

Matthew Stevens, partnership co-ordinator at Taff Ely Food bank, said reducing the stigma around food bank use had been a priority for them.

“Anybody might need to use a food bank and tackling that shame ensures that people who need support are going to get it,” said Matthew.

He said having Steven’s support was “really important”.

“Having that background ensures that he knows exactly what it’s like for somebody to walk through the doors of the food bank for the first time.

“It ensures that our volunteers know exactly what it’s like and can accommodate that and it ensures again that people can get the support they need that’s going to be effective in helping them out of their crises.”

For Steven and his family, life is now on a stable footing.

After paying the bills and looking after his family, he said it would always be his priority to give back to the charities that helped him.

If you have been affected the issues raised in this story, a list of organisations which can provide help and support is available on BBC Action Line.