A mother forced to eat the crusts from her children’s pizza for dinner is just one of the agonising stories to be found in the UK’s growing number of food banks.
The Trussel Trust, an anti-poverty charity that operates a network of some 1,400 food banks across the country, is planning on giving out more than a million emergency food parcels this winter.
In the last 18 months, it has distributed 4,483,050 parcels across the UK with the trust estimating that more than 320,000 people have needed to use a food bank for the first time in the past six months
The Independent visited Trussell Trust Kingston to meet volunteers and clients, many of whom find themselves using a service that once upon a time they would have been donating to.
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While many of the food bank users at Kingston are single parents, volunteers said it is increasingly common for people in full-time employment to use its services, including NHS workers and even schoolteachers.
Nikki, who lives in Sussex, spoke to The Independent about the embarrassment she felt when first using a food bank, after being made redundant during the pandemic.
“I’m a single mum and my three children are the most important thing in my life,” she said. “When you don’t have enough to afford the essentials it’s very depressing. “When I went to the food bank, I felt so humiliated, even though I know it’s there for a reason.
“At the time, I was thinking “I’ve got a job here”, it was so embarrassing having to ask for food for my family, I never thought I’d be there. I didn’t want people to know that I was there either.
“Winter brought extra pressures with it, like the rising cost of fuel and energy,” Nikki continued. “All our bills had gone through the roof. It was harder to make ends meet, I was struggling to cover everything. I was going without stuff, the kids would tell me that they’re hungry, but the cupboards were empty.
“You feel like you’re letting your kids down. When you’re having to live on a pittance, trying to run a household and feed house full of children on nothing, it just makes you want to not be here. My kids have never gone to bed without meals, but I have so that they can eat. Some nights all I eat is the leftover pizza crusts from my children’s dinner.
“It makes you feel bad as a mum because what are you supposed to do? I can’t go to work because my health’s too bad, so now I’m stuck in this trap.”
Another food bank user, Karen, has been coming to the Kingston branch for a year after being forced to retire due to medical issues.
She said: “I’ve worked all my life and not being able to work is a very weird feeling for me. When I first stopped working, I was unable to claim benefits because I had some savings, it wasn’t until I used up all of it that I was able to access the disability allowance.
“I never thought I would be using a food bank, it was so alien to me when I first came, and I was very embarrassed. But I had to – I had no other choice.
“As the time has gone by that shame has stopped – the people here are lovely and it’s a great community. The volunteers make you feel very comfortable and safe. I burst into tears when I realised the people are here to help. I’m not used to receiving help, but the food bank has saved me.”
What is food poverty?
In 2021/22 there were 4.7 million people, or 7% of the UK population, in food poverty, including 12% of children.
- A household can broadly be defined as experiencing food poverty or ‘household food insecurity’ if they cannot acquire “an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways”.
- The term ‘food insecure’ refers to individuals/households who ate less or went a day without eating because they couldn’t access or afford food.
- A YouGov survey by the Food Foundation found in June 2023, 17.0% (11.4m) of UK households were food insecure.
- Many people using food banks have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF), which is a condition attached to work, family and study visas that restricts their access to much of the welfare safety net for almost 1.4 million people, including around 175,000 children. This includes state benefits like Universal Credit and and social housing.
- Nearly 1 in 5 people with NRPF have been unable to feed themselves or their household because of the policy, according to research by Citizens Advice.
The Trussell Trust is not the only provider of food banks, with more than 1,170 independent branches across the country. A recent Higher Education Policy Institute report found that more than a quarter of universities now have a food bank service and one in 10 give out vouchers.
Emma Revie, Trussell Trust chief executive said: “An increasing number of children are growing up in families facing hunger, forced to turn to food banks to survive. A generation is growing up believing that it’s normal to see a food bank in every community. This is not right.
“People in work, as well as people who cannot work, are increasingly being pushed into debt and forced to turn to a food bank to survive.
“The UK Government must build on its work to protect people from increasingly severe hardship and commit to putting an Essentials Guarantee into legislation, to embed in our social security system the widely supported principle that, at a minimum, Universal Credit should protect people from going without essentials.”
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the support available to pensioners through winter fuel and cost-of-living payments between November 21 and December 7 had been worth £4.8 billion.
Officials said 99% of those eligible had received the available financial support, with payments to continue up to 26 January . Households on means-tested benefits have been eligible for cost-of-living support worth up to £900 in the 2023/24 financial year, with a final payment of £299 due to be paid in February.