About
About the Foodbank Network
The Trussell Trust supports communities and churches to open foodbanks across the UK.
Foodbanks in the UK.
13 million people currently live below the poverty line in the UK. Every day people go hungry for reasons ranging from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income. Trussell Trust foodbanks provide a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis in the UK.
In the last year (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022) Trussell Trusts network of foodbanks fed 2,100,000 people nationwide. Of those we helped, 830,000 were children.
Rising food and fuel prices, static and low incomes, under employment and changes to benefits are some of the reasons why increasing numbers are being referred to foodbanks for emergency food.
This represents a 14% increase compared to the same period in 2019/20 – before the pandemic.This is the first time food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network have provided more than 2 million parcels, outside of 2020/21, at the height of the pandemic.
Alarmingly, more than 830,000 parcels were provided for children, representing a 15% increase from 2019/20 when 720,000 were provided.
Food banks in our network experienced their busiest winter outside of 2020 at the height of the pandemic, providing 1.2 million parcels in the second half of the year alone (from October to the end of March). That’s more parcels than were provided for the whole year of 2016/17, just five years ago.
Following the cut to Universal Credit, and with the cost of living continuing to soar. Need for food banks has accelerated throughout the past six months:
July – September 2021 saw a 10% increase in comparison to the same period in 2019
October – December 2021 saw a 17% increase in comparison to the same period in 2019
January – February 2022 saw a 22% increase in comparison to the same period in 2020
As inflation continues to increase and rising bills are putting pressure on families across the country, we expect the need for emergency food to rise further still, over the coming months and beyond.
As a network, we want to see more people helped out of crisis and fewer people needing foodbanks in the future. That’s why The Trussell Trust and local foodbanks are working together to develop new ways to help people out of crisis
To find out more about The Trussell Trust visit www.trusselltrust.org.