Demand soars for food banks
Cost of living crisis leads to more needing support
Demand on Mid Sussex food banks increased by 49 per cent during the past two years, new figures from the Trussell Trust have shown.
The charity says it’s witnessing an accelerating crisis across the UK as the need for emergency food dramatically increased in the past six months. This follows the £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit and the soaring rise in living costs that people are facing.
Burgess Hill Community
Foodbank says it has continued to see an increased number of clients, ‘most likely due to to rise in the cost of living crisis’, and has started a trial of opening 10am-12noon on Saturdays morning to extend the service for those in need.
New figures reveal food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network provided more than 2.1 million parcels to people facing financial hardship across the country, from April 1 2021 to March 31 2022. This represents a 14 per cent increase compared to
the same period in 2019/20 – before the pandemic – as more and more people are unable to afford the absolute essentials that we all need to eat, stay warm, dry and clean. 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 per cent increase from 2019/20 when 720,000 were provided.
In Mid Sussex food banks provided a total of 6,782 parcels in 2021/22, of which 3,259 were to children.
In 2020-21 demand peaked with 7,753 parcels being distributed, with 3,867 of those going to children.
This compares to 4,544 given out in 2019/2020, before the pandemic struck. In that year, 2,095 parcels were given to children.
Analysis by the JPIMedia data team shows that in 2020/21 Mid Sussex distributed 4,458 parcels per 100,000 people and was ranked 17th in the South East.
But the difference between the figures in 2019/20 before the pandemic, and 2021/22 shows a shocking 49 per cent increase in demand.
A spokesman for the food bank in Burgess Hill told the Middy: “Burgess Hill Community Foodbank has continued to see an increased number of clients, most significantly when the pandemic started, when we saw approximately three times the amount of clients.
“In 2021 BHCFB provided 337 clients with food through a total of 1,020 distributions comprising a total of 1,435 boxes of food for 2 people for 3 days. In 2022 we continue to see our client numbers increase, most likely due to the rise in the cost-of-living impacting families.
“We have started a trial of opening 10-12 on a Saturday morning to extend the service for those in need.”
The Trussell Trust is calling on the Government to take urgent action to bring benefits in line with the true cost of living.
In response, a Government spokesperson said they recognised the pressures on the cost of living and were spending £22 billion in next financial year to support people with energy bills and cut fuel duty. “For the hardest hit, we’re putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families on Universal Credit, have also boosted the minimum wage by more than £1,000 a year for full-time workers and our Household Support Fund is there to help with the cost of everyday essentials.”