New figures released on Thursday by the Trussell Trust show that 1.3 million emergency food parcels were provided to people between April and September this year by foodbanks in the UK network and almost half a million of these went to children. That’s a third more than were provided during the same period in 2021 and an increase of more than 50% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
According to the Trussell Trust, the cost of living emergency has created a ‘tsunami of need’, as people struggle to survive amidst the soaring costs of living. The charity warns that foodbanks are at ‘breaking point’, both physically and mentally, and are set to face the hardest winter yet as they expect to provide more than 7,000 emergency food parcels a day on average in the next six months.
Here at North Cotswold Foodbank, the situation is even grimmer as we have seen an increase of over 120% in the number of emergency food parcels handed out in the six months from April to September this year. These parcels provided food for 1,800 people, of which 760 were children, an increase of nearly 130% compared with last year. We have already provided more people with food between April and November this year than we did in the whole of the previous financial year, and our busiest months are still ahead of us.
As winter approaches and inflation continues to rise, we expect that the situation is sadly only going to get worse for people who are already struggling to get by.
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