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Food Banks Break Supply Record

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25 April 2018

By Alex Khalil

The biggest network of food banks in the UK has revealed it provided record levels of ‘emergency food supplies’ last year. The figures from Trussell Trust show a 13% increase, providing 1.3 million food packages for ‘people in crisis’.

The charity warns that the increase is due to those living on benefits who simply can’t afford the basic essentials. The Department for Work and Pensions said:

‘The reasons why people use food banks are complex.’

A spokeswoman for the department rejected the link to the changes in benefits or the introduction of Universal Credit. They added:

‘It’s wrong to link the rise to any one cause.’

Food banks
Hard to believe isn’t it?

Latest figures, however, show that the increasing reliance on the charity’s services is too high. Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust, said that ‘for too many people staying above water is a daily struggle’. The reliance on food banks has almost quadrupled in the last five years.

In this year’s total 1.3 million food supplies, 484,000 were requested for children, which represents two-thirds of the food bank provision across the UK, according to the Trust.

Percentage-wise, according to the Trust, 39% of people who use food banks were single men, 13% were single mothers with children, 12% were single women and 9% were a couple with children. It also stated that debt was an increasing cause of the need for food banks.

Food banks are vital lifelines for some people, but there may be some truth to the fact that it may be impossible to identify just one problem that causes the reliance on the service.

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