This is the most parcels food banks in the charity’s UK-wide network have ever distributed in a single year and represents a 37% increase compared to last year.
Emma Revie, chief executive at the Trussell Trust, said: “Food banks were set up to provide short-term support to people in an emergency, they are not a lasting solution to hunger and poverty, and more than three quarters of the UK population agree with us that they should not need to exist. The staff and volunteers in our network are working tirelessly to ensure help continues to be available, but the current situation is not one they can solve alone.
“For too long people have been going without because social security payments do not reflect life’s essential costs and people are being pushed deeper into hardship as a result. If we are to stop this continued growth and end the need for food banks then the UK government must ensure that the standard allowance of Universal Credit is always enough to cover essential costs.”
According to a YouGov poll the majority of the UK public (77%) think that food banks should not be needed in the UK, with a strong majority agreeing (93%) that everyone should be able to buy enough food for themselves and their family.
The charity has joined with Joseph Rowntree Foundation in urging the UK Government to embed in law an ‘Essentials Guarantee’ that would make sure Universal Credit payments always, at a minimum, provide enough to the cover cost of essentials such as food, utilities and vital household goods.