The Trussell Trust is calling for politicians to protect people from hunger after revealing the “steepest rise yet” in the number of emergency food parcels they gave out over the summer.
A total of 823,145 three-day parcels were given out to vulnerable families between April and September this year with 301,653 going to children.
That represents a 23 per cent rise over the same period in 2018 – the sharpest increase that the charity has seen in the past five years.
Benefits were the main reason why people needed emergency food parcels with 36 per cent of people citing low benefit income, 18 per cent blaming delays in receiving benefits while 16 per cent pointed the finger at changes in their benefits.
More people than ever before need #foodbanks. 820,000 emergency food parcels were provided by #foodbanks in our network over the past six months. Enough is enough. We know #ThisCanChange > pic.twitter.com/iKaxBpEhC3
— The Trussell Trust (@TrussellTrust) November 13, 2019
The Trussell Trust’s CEO Emma Revie has been making it clear that the benefits system has been driving a rise in foodbank use in recent times – the charity released their State of Hunger 2019 report just last week.