NEARLY three million food parcels were handed out by the foodbank charity Trussell in the year to March — almost one million more than five years previously.
Figures released by the charity on Wednesday of last week show that one million of the 2.885 million parcels delivered between April 2024 and March 2025 were for children — a 51 per cent increase on 2019/20. About one third (32 per cent) were for under-fives.
The overall figure represents a decrease of about eight per cent since 2023/24, however, when food parcel deliveries peaked at 3.1 million — a post-pandemic jump of more than 1.2 million (News, 17 May 2024). Trussell says that this did not indicate reduced need.
Families are the most common recipients, it reports, as it continues to report that parents are skipping meals to feed their children, and people are eating their food parcels at the foodbank, because of “desperate” hunger.
Andrew, 44, from Fife, is a single father with a young daughter. He was 34 when his autoimmune condition forced him to stop work. His social-security payments are often not enough to get by, he says, and he has been living off foodbanks.
“When the doctor said I couldn’t work, it felt like my purpose had gone,” he said. “I do what I can to make ends meet. I make sure my daughter doesn’t see that I am regularly skipping meals so that she can eat. I eat whatever is left on her plate when she’s finished. I lost almost two stone last year through not eating enough.
“Poverty isn’t just about money — it’s the constant stress of trying to survive.”
Karen Burgon, chief executive at Leeds North and West Foodbank, said that donations were not keeping up with demand. “We’re seeing really high numbers of families, disabled people, working people, and older people, struggling to afford the essentials. Food donations are not keeping up with the level of need we are seeing, and this is putting us under a lot of strain.
“We have found ourselves spending up to £12,000 every month to supplement the donations we receive, which is a real worry to us as we anticipate even more people needing our support in the year ahead. It’s not right that anyone should be forced to turn to charity for emergency food.”
The new figures should be a “wake-up call” for the Government to take action, Trussell’s chief executive, Emma Revie, said. “A whole generation has now grown up in a country where sustained high levels of foodbank need feel like the norm. This should be a massive wake-up call to government and a stark reminder of their responsibilities to the people of this country.”
She called on the Government to reverse its “harmful policy choices on disability benefits and housing support”, and to show “greater ambition” on the forthcoming child-poverty strategy and the future of local crisis support.
“It is clear that the public’s cost-of-living fears are far from over, and these numbers show why. If the UK Government truly wants to improve public services, boost the economy, and make the UK a better place to live, then addressing hunger and hardship must be a priority.”
Trussell estimates that hunger and hardship in the UK — in which the median, it says, is between “deep poverty” and “very deep poverty” — is costing the Government £75 billion a year in additional public services and other costs (News, 2 May).
