COST OF LIVING CRISIS: 1 million emergency food bank parcels to be handed out this winter
More than one million emergency parcels are expected to be distributed by food banks this winter due to an “unprecedented need” for help, a charity has warned.
The Trussell Trust network, which supports more than 1,300 food bank centres across the UK, has forecast that more than 600,000 people will rely on food banks from December this year until next February.
That will mean almost 100,000 more emergency food parcels are required compared to the same period last year, when a total of 904,000 were handed out.
Last winter saw 220,000 children supported by emergency meals from the Trussell Trust network, with 225,000 people using a food bank for the first time.
And the charity believes the numbers will continue to rise in the run up to Christmas and into early next year, as many people hit crisis point.
One in seven people in the UK are forced to go hungry because they don’t have enough money to feed themselves, Trussell Trust chief executive, Emma Revie, said. “We don’t want to spend every winter saying things are getting worse, but they are,” she warned.