Category Archives: Food banks

More than 9 million Britons vulnerable to reliance on food banks, research finds

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One million more people are in what Trussell charity defines as ‘hunger and hardship’ than five years ago

More than 9 million people in the UK experience levels of poverty and hunger so extreme they are vulnerable to reliance on charity food handouts, according to research.

A report by the charity Trussell found Labour would fail to deliver its manifesto promise to remove the “moral scar” of food banks unless it tackled low household incomes in this group, which amounted to one in seven of the population.

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Which benefits are available to vulnerable people under Labour?

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As the winter fuel allowance is scrapped for many pensioners, we outline some other key benefits

• Millions facing ‘cruel winter’ without fuel payments, Labour MPs warn

Labour backbenchers are warning that millions of vulnerable people will face a “cruel winter” amid rising energy prices and a reduction in benefits, including the removal of winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.

Keir Starmer’s government has promised to improve conditions for those most in need, with a commitment to “reduce and alleviate” child poverty and end the “moral scar” of food banks. And while Labour sees economic growth and creating more reliable and well-paid jobs as crucial to achieving these aims, it cannot ignore a number of pressing and often interrelated problems in the social security and benefits system.

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‘It’s put so many families in poverty’: people on the impact of the two-child benefit cap

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As Labour backbenchers call for Keir Starmer to scrap the cap, families reveal their struggles as a result of the two-child limit

Keir Starmer has launched a cross-government taskforce to tackle child poverty, but backbench Labour MPs are calling for the government to go further and scrap the two-child benefit cap. Here people reveal how the limit affects their families.

Alicia* is a mother of four children in Newcastle, and is separated from their father. She does everything she can to avoid going to collect a parcel from a food bank. She will often buy a big sack of potatoes and cook them in different ways throughout the week – jacket potatoes, fried chips, wedges – so her kids get variation. She often skips breakfast and lunch herself.

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UK children shorter, fatter and sicker amid poor diet and poverty, report finds

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Food Foundation says height of five-year-olds falling, child obesity up by a third and type 2 diabetes by a fifth

Children across the UK are getting shorter, fatter and sicker amid an epidemic of poor diets, food insecurity and poverty, according to a report warning that millions are facing a “timebomb” of avoidable health conditions.

The average height of five-year-olds is falling, obesity levels have increased by almost a third and the number of young people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has risen by more than a fifth, the report by the Food Foundation said.

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Food bank use a ‘personal decision’, says veterans minister

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Johnny Mercer says food bank use not an accurate measure of poverty after reports of some military personnel relying on them

The use of food banks is a personal decision for some people and not an accurate measure of levels of poverty across the UK, the veterans minister has said.

Johnny Mercer argued that food banks remained a lifeline for “some dire cases” but that it was “not correct” to say people used them only when they had no choice.

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Food banks supported 800,000 UK children in 2021-22, data shows

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One-fifth of UK population was in relative poverty after first year of pandemic, when support measures scrapped

Families including 800,000 children were forced to turn to food banks to feed themselves as poverty levels started to rise again after the first year of the pandemic, the first official figures on UK food bank use show.

The statistics came in official poverty data, which revealed that the reduction in relative poverty achieved during the first year of the Covid crisis in 2020-21 was temporary and was reversed after ministers scrapped support measures.

In-work poverty remains high – half (54%) of people in poverty lived in a household where at least one adult was in work, while more than two-thirds of children in poverty (71%) lived in working families.

Child poverty rates were much higher among black (53%) and Asian (47%) families than white families (25%). About 44% of children in single-parent families, and 36% of children living in families where someone has a disability, were in poverty.

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Revealed: record number of households in UK depending on food banks

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Almost 90% of food banks see increased demand, as organisers fear having to cut support or turn people away

More people are depending on food banks than ever before in Britain, new figures show, as “ever-increasing” numbers of households – including pensioners, NHS staff and teachers – seek help amid the cost of living crisis.

New research by the Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan), shared with the Observer, found that almost 90% of food banks surveyed reported increased demand in December 2022 and January 2023 compared with a year earlier. Half of the 85 organisations running 154 food banks that responded said if demand rose further they would either have to cut support or turn people away.

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No 10 refuses to deny Sunak was given informal warning about Raab’s behaviour before he made him deputy PM – live

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Dominic Raab under increasing pressure as civil servants’ union calls for him to be suspended until bullying inquiry concludes

MPs have been told that paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland have coerced young people with drug debts to take part in rioting, PA Media reports. PA says:

A community worker gave an example of a user’s debt being reduced by £80 for doing so.

Megan Phair, coordinator of the Journey to Empowerment Programme and member of the Stop Attacks Forum, said both loyalist and dissident republican groups use the tactic to force people on to the streets.

It’s time for the prime minister to come out of hiding and face the music. The public deserves to know the truth about what he knew and when, including the full disclosure of any advice given to him by the Cabinet Office.

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UK single parents skipping meals due to food price inflation, Which? finds

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Consumer body says one in three lone parents forced to miss meals or visit food banks to make ends meet

Close to a third of single parents have resorted to skipping meals to make ends meet because of rising food costs, according to research revealing the household types worst hit by the cost of living crisis.

Three in 10 single parent households surveyed said they had missed meals as a consequence of runaway food prices. That compared with one in seven parents in couples and an overall figure of 14% in the poll by the consumer group Which?

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UK’s biggest food bank network to spend millions on parcels this winter

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Exclusive: Trussell Trust to distribute 1.3m emergency food parcels to help soaring numbers of households in need

The UK’s biggest food bank network is preparing to spend millions of pounds topping up charity food parcels this winter as it offers help to record numbers of families at risk of going hungry as a result of the cost of living crisis.

The Trussell Trust said the expenditure was needed to ensure food banks had adequate food reserves because its customary main source of food supplies – donations from the public – was failing to keep pace with rapidly increasing demand.

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UK food banks at breaking point urge Liz Truss to boost aid to poorest

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As cost of living crisis bites, 3,000 volunteers across several organisations sign letter of warning to the prime minister

Thousands of food bank volunteers will warn Liz Truss on Monday that they are having to ration provisions, as their services have become “overstretched and exhausted” because of an influx of people needing their help.

In a sign of a continuing cost of living crisis that was building even before the economic crisis that followed the government’s mini-budget, a letter signed by more than 3,000 food bank workers will be delivered to Downing Street.

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Demand for crisis support soars even in wealthy UK towns

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Citizens Advice in affluent Wokingham says requests for help have nearly doubled in a year

A growing number of people in one of the most affluent areas of the country are struggling financially because of a huge spike in energy bills and the soaring cost of living, according to the chief executive of Wokingham Citizens Advice.

Many people who have been “just about managing” are now slipping into poverty and debt in Berkshire, said Jake Morrison, making him fearful for poorer regions throughout the country.

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Food banks warn surge in demand will prevent feeding hungriest this winter

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Exclusive: Nearly 70% of providers say they may need to turn people away or shrink the size of emergency rations

Food banks across Britain have warned of a “completely unsustainable” surge in demand that will prevent them feeding the hungriest families this winter.

Organisations representing 169 food banks told the Guardian the number of people seeking emergency help had already grown “dramatically” and predicted “bleak and disturbing” weeks ahead.

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Asda employees ‘skipping meals’ due to monthly payroll errors

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Thousands of staff have been left up to £500 short on payday, which has forced some to use food banks or leave bills unpaid

Asda employees are having to skip household bill payments, take out loans, and even use food banks to get through the month due to regular payroll errors that have seen some underpaid by £500 or more.

The scale of the problem emerged after the private equity-backed company admitted to members of the Scottish parliament that its external payroll firm had made nearly 11,000 errors in recent months, affecting the wages of 5,500 staff.

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Tory MP says no massive need for food banks in UK and real problem is people’s cooking skills – live

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Latest updates: Conservative Lee Anderson says people just need to be shown how to cook nutritious meals that cost less

Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland, has criticised the DUP for refusing to commit to backing the election of a speaker for the Northern Ireland assembly. (See 11.25am.) She said:

What we need to see is the positions filled - first minister, deputy first minister, all the ministerial positions filled, and let’s get down to doing business.

I don’t think it is good enough. It is not good enough for the people here that the DUP is holding society to ransom, punishing society, preventing the establishment of a speaker and an executive to actually respond to the things people are worried about.

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Local elections: ‘It’s Partygate versus low council taxes’

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The Tories have held Wandsworth for more than four decades, but Boris Johnson’s lockdown woes and the cost of living crisis threaten to tip the balance towards Labour

In many ways, the London borough of Wandsworth is a paradigm of the modern capital. On one hand, it is a place where a teenager recently fainted from hunger in a food bank queue. And on the other, it is home to the “sky pool”, a spectacular transparent swimming pool suspended 10 storeys above ground in Nine Elms, and reserved exclusively for the development’s richest residents.

The borough is also known for its comparatively low council tax – which, its Conservative-run council boasts, is the lowest average council tax in the country. Wandsworth also claims to be the only local authority in London that is cutting its share of council tax bills.

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Why the ancient art of gleaning is making a comeback across England

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Volunteers are picking leftover produce on farms to reduce waste and help food banks

“It’s like a vegetable treasure hunt,” says Jenni Duncan, 54, ankle deep in mud, looking at the rows of cauliflower plants stretching out in front of her as the Cornish drizzle gets heavier by the minute.

This field near Hayle in west Cornwall has already been harvested, but not all the produce met supermarket standards and so some was left unpicked. This is where Duncan and her team of volunteers come in, working down the rows, peeling back the leaves of plants that have been left behind, hoping to find small but perfectly formed cauliflowers still tucked deep inside.

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Guardian angel: a Syrian feeding the homeless who dreams of his own street food van

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In our new column, in which we make nice things happen for nice people, Khaled Wakkaa starts to turn his passion into a livelihood

In a Lebanese hospital in 2015, Khaled Wakkaa watched as his wife Dalal grew weaker. She was emaciated and jaundiced. In the two years since they had fled the Syrian civil war, they’d lived on the brink, sleeping on the street or on friends’ floors. “Me and my wife had started to die,” he says. The hospital wanted $500 for medical bills. Wakkaa left her in the waiting room and went begging at mosques and churches. Nobody would help.

Some friends posted about his situation on Facebook. Fellow Syrian refugees in Beirut started calling. “I received phone calls from people who don’t have money,” he says. “But they wanted to help me.” They gave him everything they’d managed to scrounge together: $200. At first, the hospital refused to accept the smaller amount, but relented after much pleading, and Dalal was admitted.

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Guardian angel: a Hackney hero takes his team bowling

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In our new column, in which we make nice things happen for nice people, we meet Marvin Birch, who turned his life around – and now spreads the community love


Marvin Birch has lived on the Kingsmead estate in Hackney his entire life. It’s never had a good reputation. There was a terrible murder of a young boy there in 1985; in 1994 a newspaper article wrote the place off as “one of the most notorious estates in east London”. But Birch has always found it a place of community. “It’s a family,” he says. “When people who don’t live on an estate come to visit they always comment on how everyone is together: ‘You can go out of your house and kids are playing.’” That’s what inspired him, as an adult, to make a difference for children growing up there today.

As a teenager, Birch, now 26, was a prisoner of geography, subject to restrictions that made the simple act of visiting a supermarket a few roads away a life-threatening gauntlet. “There were a lot of postcode wars,” he says. He couldn’t walk a mile in either direction without being targeted. At the time, a member of his family was a gang member, which put entire swathes of Hackney off limits.

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‘We can’t go back to normal’: The US had deep inequalities before Covid. These women are fighting to make the recovery equitable

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The links between health access, income and race have never been so visible – these doctors, experts and activists see that as an opportunity for a revolution in care

Dr Ana Caskin treats underserved populations in Washington DC, in parts of the city where life expectancy is 20 years lower than it is in places that are a 20-minute train ride away. The last thing she wants when the Covid-19 pandemic finally recedes is for things to go back to “normal”.

Because for the people she treats that would mean limited access to doctors and therapists, healthy food and affordable, safe housing – the type of things that are now proven to help protect people from Covid-19.

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