A record near-three million emergency food parcels have been handed out at food banks in the year to March, with the number provided for children topping a million for the first time. The figures from the Trussell Trust charity represent a 37% increase compared to the previous year.
A total of 2,986,203 emergency food parcels were given out between April 2022 and March this year – the most parcels food banks in the charity’s UK-wide network have ever distributed in a single year. The number is more than double the amount distributed by food banks in the same period five years ago, the charity said.
Some 1,139,553 parcels were distributed for children, up from 835,879 the previous year and a rise from less than 500,000 in the 2017–2018 year. In a sign of what the charity said is increasing need amid the cost-of-living crisis, more than 760,000 people – more than the population of Sheffield in the last census – used a food bank in the network for the first time.
