Nearly one million adults and children have relied on a food package from one of the Trussell trust food banks in the last year alone. Shockingly, this is a 163% rise from the year before, despite reports in the media that the economy is recovering. The poorest have seen their incomes squeezed more than ever.

More people are now being referred to Trussell trust food banks than ever before. Not surprisingly, the food banks are struggling to cope. Whilst there has been a 163% increase on food bank use, there has only been a 45% increase in the number of Trussell trust food banks opening in the last year. Although the Trussell trust has launched over 400 food banks in the UK to date, the rate of new food banks opening has reduced from three a week in 2012/13 to two a week in 2013/14.

It is important to remember that the Trussell trust receive no government funding, they rely solely on volunteering and donations. Food isn’t all they offer either, they are now partnering with other agencies to provide additional services to people in a crisis. These include welfare advice, budgeting help and debt support. They are also providing essentials like washing powder, nappies and hygiene products to people who are at breaking point.

Food banks that have been open for three years or more have seen an average increase of 51% in numbers helped in 2013-14, compared to 2012/13. This shows just how much well established food banks are experiencing significant uplift in demand. In 21st century Britain these numbers are more shocking than ever, and leave many people wondering why the situation has got so bad.

The Trussell trust’s chairman, Chris Mould, believes that benefit sanctions are one of the biggest reasons people fall into financial trouble. He says: “It’s been extremely tough for a lot of people, with parents not eating properly in order to feed their children and more people than ever experiencing seemingly unfair and harsh benefit sanctions. Unless there is determined policy action to ensure that the benefits of national economic recovery reach people on low incomes we wont see life get better for the poorest anytime soon.”

This comes after the latest figures from the Trussell trust reveal that benefit delays are still the main reason people struggle financially, and have to turn to food banks to

survive. Following behind this is low income, benefit changes, debt, homelessness and unemployment, which are all significant reasons why so many people are still struggling to put food on the table.

Oxfam’s head of UK poverty programme, Rachael Orr, believes that the government urgently need to help those who are the poorest in our society. She says: “Food banks and the thousands of people who support them are doing an impressive job in helping stop people from going hungry, but the truth is that in a country as rich as the UK there should not be food poverty at all. The government needs to provide adequate support to the poorest in society and urgently tackle the low incomes and rising bills that are leaving people hungry.”

The Trussell trust provides people with a package containing three days worth of food, they work with dieticians to design a nutritionally balanced food parcel, but crucially using non-perishable items that can last. This differs from American food banks, which give users any near-dated surplus food.

Feeding the hungry is an expensive business. The Milton Keynes food bank charity has revealed that the average single adult food package, which is ‘designed to provide a nutritionally balanced diet for a

single person for 3 days’ is worth around £16.40. The average child food package is worth £7.83.

While the latest figures from the Trussell trust have revealed that over 900,000 people relied on food banks last year, perhaps more worrying is the fact that over 400,000 of these were children. Nutritionist, Carrie Tough, believes that having to eat from food banks can have a serious damaging effect on children.

She says: “To see such high numbers like this is surprising because food can be very affordable, and therefore children shouldn’t have to eat from food banks.It can be hard for food banks to provide a full healthy diet because everything they get is donated and they need a longer shelf life. Most things come in boxes, tins or cans, tinned or canned foods have a lot of their nutritional value lost in the tinning process.

“Eating from food banks can have a serious mental effect on a child, if they are not sitting down and having a proper family meal, if they can see that their family are struggling, this will mentally affect them, which in turn will impact the way they learn.”

It’s not just children who can be mentally affected by having to turn to food banks. Graham Potts, the senior manager at the Canterbury food banks believe that many of the people they help simply feel like failures.

He says: “One of the biggest impacts of financial poverty is not necessarily physical, it’s mental.

People feel that they have failed, they feel bad about having to approach a food bank to get food supplies, so they feel like they are a failure.One of the things our café tries to do, our befrienders, who man the café, they pick people up, give them a cup of tea or coffee and just have a chat. They try to make sure that

these people are getting the right support from the right agencies, as well as the food support.

It seems as if the people who make up the poorest part of our society, are struggling more than they ever have done. The latest figures from the Trussell trust reinforce evidence from the recent government-commissioned DEFRA report, which found that increased food bank use is not a question of supply, but of meeting a real and growing need. Many people agree that it is the government who need to make real changes in order to see an improvement in these figures. In the meantime, at a time of such need in Britain, every donation counts.

“People feel that they have failed”

With the number of people relying on food banks hitting shocking new highs, Lauren Barnett investigates the ‘food bank effect’ on 21st century Britain...

“People are at breaking point”

“Food banks can have a serious damaging effect on children”

“Children shouldn’t have to eat from food banks”