(Bloomberg) — The UK’s biggest food bank network distributed more support than ever before in the last financial year, with December 2022 marking its busiest year on record.
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Data from the Trussell Trust published on Wednesday shows its 1,200 food banks distributed almost three million food parcels between April 2022 and March 2023. That’s a 37% rise from the previous 12 months and more that double the figures from five years ago.
It was also the first period on record where more than one million food parcels were distributed to children. In the same 12-month window, 760,000 people used a food bank for the first time, up 38% from the previous year, demonstrating how many people are struggling as inflation remains in double digits. The numbers provide a small window into how the cost of living crisis is affecting people around the country and adds pressure on the government to offer more support.
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Each parcel usually contains enough food for one person for three days but the charity distributed parcels containing seven days’ worth of supplies since the onset of the pandemic, which is accounted for in the data.
“For too long people have been going without because social security payments do not reflect life’s essential costs and people are being pushed deeper into hardship as a result,” said Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust.
“The staff and volunteers in our network are working tirelessly to ensure help continues to be available, but the current situation is not one they can solve alone.”
The Independent Food Aid Network revealed in February that a number of food banks were concerned that rising demand would mean they would have to turn people away as their own costs climb. NHS staff, teachers and pensioners are among those now relying on food banks for support, according to the report.
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“The Trussell Trust figures represent the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to wider food insecurity,” Sabine Goodwin, Coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, said in an email. “The UK’s poverty crisis is having a devastating impact on people’s physical and mental health to the detriment of society as a whole. This is an avoidable public health disaster.”
Those on the lowest incomes, who spend more of their income on food and energy, are hit particularly hard by headline inflation figures. Food prices continued to soar in March, rising 19.1% according to data from the Office for National Statistics, holding inflation stubbornly high above expectations.
Those on the lowest income brackets are at risk of going into debt to buy essentials, according to Asda’s Income Tracker.
Read more: Nearly Half of UK Families Are Left With Less Than £3 a Week
