Usage of emergency food parcels has soared to approximately 350,000 locally, and close to 3 million nationally between April 2022 and March 2023 according to data released by the Trussell Trust, a trust of foodbanks. This is an increase of almost 40% from the same period last year.

The Trussell Trust, a network of food banks, has released statistics for the time period between April 2022 and March 2023, which shows that emergency food parcels have increased by 37% to nearly 3 million nationally, while in the South East, usage has risen to 350,000 from over 250,000. 

The figures, released annually at the end of April each year show an increase of usage in a time beset by the cost of living crisis  and is a continuation of trends which show that there are more food parcels being produced each year. This trend continues into this year as figures released this month by the trust have seen the number of emergency parcels being produced be one and a half million from April 1st to September 30th this year, an increase from approximately 1.3 million from the same period last year.

This problem seems to continue to increase with high inflation rates around 5%, which despite lowering, is still above the Bank of England target of 2% and with interest rates not expecting to start to fall until at least March which means that more people will be forced to use food banks, if trends continue, in the near future, especially near Christmas.