Record 3.1 million food bank parcels handed out in a year, says charity
A record 3.1 million emergency food parcels have been handed out in just a year, according to a charity.
The Trussell Trust says 3,121,404 were distributed by its network of 1,300 food banks in the year to the end of March.
Some 1,144,096 were for children and nearly two million for adults. The total is nearly double that of five years ago.
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The number of parcels given out during the 12 months to March 2023 was just under three million.
While the number of first-time users this year – 655,000 – is a slight drop, it’s still a rise of 40% compared with five years ago.
And the number of parcels given to someone of state pension age also increased by 27% to 179,000, according to the trust.
A foodbank in Leeds is among those seeing more demand from older people.
“Our volunteers are telling us that they are dealing with pensioners who can’t afford to put food on the table due to having to pay higher energy costs,” said Wendy Doyle, operations manager at Leeds South and East Foodbank.
Val McKie, who previously used food banks after she was left “couch-surfing and destitute” when her husband died and work dried up, said the rising need for food support is a “stain on our society”.
“I was overwhelmed with shame at the situation I was in,” said Ms McKie.
“I struggled for years before I found the courage and strength to ask for help, these feelings are shared by so many people who need the support of food banks.”
The number of parcels given out over the last 12 months is nearly double that of five years ago
The Trussell Trust wants politicians to back a “supportive social security system” for parents, carers and people with disabilities who face increased living costs.
Emma Revie, the trust’s chief executive, said the UK was facing “historically high levels of food bank need”.
“As a society, we cannot allow this to continue. We must not let food banks become the new norm,” she said.
“As we approach the next UK general election, we urgently need all political leaders to set out how they will build a future where no one needs a food bank to survive.”
Social change group the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) repeated calls for a protected minimum amount of financial support so people can afford the essentials.
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Iain Porter, JRF senior policy adviser, said: “This is not what an economy returning to full health looks like.
“The latest record-breaking emergency food parcel figures show the painful economic reality facing families with the least.”
He said the issue was one that “no political party can ignore in this election year”.
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Alison McGovern, Labour’s acting shadow work and pensions secretary, said the “dreadful” figures “lay bare the reality facing households across the country after 14 years of Tory misery”.
She said Labour would tackle the “root causes of poverty” – for example building more affordable housing and protecting renters, cutting school uniform costs and providing breakfast clubs in every primary school.
The government said its cost-of-living support package had prevented 1.3 million people falling into poverty in 2022-23.
It said it was also “raising the National Living Wage, cutting taxes and driving down inflation while investing billions through our Back to Work Plan”.
The crash involving a cargo ship and oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coast is bad news for the sea, fish and air in the area. What we don’t know yet is quite how bad it will be.
That depends on a few things – but the speed of the collision, clouds of filthy black smoke from the fires and the leaked fuel are certainly worrying.
Firstly, it matters what was on board those two massive vessels.
Follow live: Jet fuel spilling into sea after tanker collision
Analytics firm Vortexa estimates the 183m-long tanker was carrying about 130,000 barrels of jet fuel (kerosene), which is now leaking into the sea.
Jet fuel is not as sticky or viscous as heavier types of oil, thankfully, so it’s less likely to clog the feathers and fur of birds and seals. It can also be broken down by natural bacteria.
But it can still poison fish and kill animals and plants on the shoreline if it makes its way into the soil there.
The Marine Conservation Society has pointed out the site in the Humber estuary is close to some protected areas and is important for seabirds and harbour porpoises.
And both ships will have been powered by a dirtier, heavier kind of oil – likely marine gas oil or heavy fuel oil, though we don’t know the details yet.
Heavy fuel oil is nasty stuff.
Pic: Bartek Smialek/PA
Cheap, thick and tar-like, it can smother animals and is very dangerous if they consume it, and is extremely difficult to clean up. Let’s hope this isn’t creeping around the North Sea already.
We don’t know how much of either the jet fuel or the oil powering the ships has leaked, or how much will be burned off in the violent fires – which themselves are ploughing black smoke and filthy air pollution into the surrounding atmosphere.
And we don’t know for sure what was on the Solong cargo ship and if, or what, will go into the sea.
Cargo ship ‘had sodium cyanide on board’
It was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide among other cargo, according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
The container vessel was also transporting an unknown quantity of alcohol, said the casualty report – an assessment of incidents at sea – citing a message from the local coastguard.
Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, and potentially can choke or trap animals.
Many of us have seen that uncomfortable viral video of a turtle having a straw yanked out of its nose. Previous accidents on cargo ships have seen plastic Lego pieces wash up in Cornwall 25 years later.
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Secondly, the impact depends on the sea and weather conditions around it.
Things like the wind and currents affect how an oil spill spreads in the sea. Scientists can draw up computer models to simulate how the oil could behave.
Thirdly, it matters how quickly this is all tackled and then cleaned up, if necessary, and if it can be.
Usually the slower the response, the worse the impact.
The coastguard has said the incident “remains ongoing” and it has started assessing the “likely counter pollution response” that will be required.
Such a response might need the help of numerous public bodies: the government environment department, the transport department, the Environment Agency and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
So for now the best we can hope for – aside from the welfare of the people involved – is that not all the oil is spilled or burnt, that conditions are calm and that rescuers and those cleaning up can work swiftly.
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