For the first time this year, we can reveal our National Statistics. Unfortunately, the statistics show that people in the UK have been struggling more than ever since our records began.
Since 2022 we’ve seen a sharp rise in adults and children requiring access to our food banks across the UK, with nearly 3 million (2,986,203) food parcels provided by our network in the past 12 months, and 1 million of those were to children. These figures are unprecedented and make for extremely sobering viewing.
Although shocking, this data provides us with concrete evidence that we can use to inform our conversations with people across our communities and highlight that this isn’t right. We urge those of you who are reading this to share these statistics in any way you can, to help spread awareness of just how bad food poverty in the UK has become.
We spoke to a man last week who has been living off £90 a month for the last 6 months due to deductions on his Universal Credit. He actually said:
“I am really struggling; I don’t know what to do. How can a benefits system that is supposed to be there to support people when they are in need, and make them feel safe and secure, be so extreme to leave somebody with £90 a month to live on?”
Another way you can help spread awareness and help us change things is by writing to your local MP. You can find out more about how to do this here.
Need more information? We’ve put together a comprehensive 12-page factsheet about our food parcel distribution in the UK over the past year, which you can view and download here.
“This year it has been really hard, you know, we see peaks and troughs of demand but this year, when running our monthly stats, most months I was saying sadly we’ve reached a new level that we never wanted to reach”.
We know this information may be distressing to hear, but with this knowledge, we can be the catalyst for change. Together we can halt the fast rise in food poverty, and we are already so grateful to all of our fantastic volunteers who help us here at the Norwood and Brixton Foodbank.