Government Warned Food Banks Are Now Ingrained In British Life

Chief executive of the Trussell Trust, Emma Revie, has told PoliticsHome the charity's food banks are at "breaking point" and expressed concern that they were becoming permanent fixtures in British society.

Figures released by the Trussell Trust in November showed 1.5m emergency food parcels were handed out by the charity between April and September across the UK, the highest figure ever and a 16 per cent increase on the same period last year. 

Data also shows 65 per cent of all the parcels provided by Trussell Trust food banks in the same period were for families with children. The charity has found 320,000 people have used a food bank for the first time in the six months to November 2023. 

"People don't have enough money for the essentials," Revie said. 

"The level of social security is just not enough to cover those core essentials that we all need to live – for people who are working, and potentially receiving some universal credit on top of that." 

Revie said the food bank is also having to diversify what it offers to meet the demands of its clients, including providing SIM cards and hot water bottles – leaving the organisation feeling as though a reliance on their services has become entrenched in British society. 

"Food banks are not a statutory service, they can't be," Revie continued.

"They're doing their very, very best, but creaking under the strain. We are starting to think in our minds as a nation, that the service will always be there and able to just adapt, and partly that is just down to the extreme, extraordinary commitment of our volunteers.

"But on the inside it doesn't feel like that – it feels like a group of people carrying too much on their shoulders. It's unsustainable, and it's not right."

Labour MP