Food bank parcels rise by 25% in a year

The number of food parcels distributed in the North of Ireland by the UK’s largest food bank network has risen by 25% compared to the same period in 2021.

The Trussell Trust said it provided 31,687 emergency food parcels in the North between April 1 and September 30, 2022.

That compares to 25,328 food parcels for the same period in 2021 and 17,981 in 2020.

The charity said the number of people using one of its foodbanks in NI for the first time rose by over a third.

The Trussell Trust network has 45 food banks and distribution centres in North of Ireland and around 1,400 across the UK.

One of those is Foyle Foodbank which has seen a huge rise in demand for struggling families across Derry.

But the charity said that as many other organisations also run food banks, its figures do not fully reflect their overall use.

There are other independent food banks across Northern Ireland operated by community and church organisations like the Salvation Army, for example, and some schools.

The Trussell Trust had previously warned that its food banks were likely to get busier in Northern Ireland due to rises in the cost of living.

The cost of living is increasing at its fastest rate in 40 years, largely as a result of rising food and energy prices.

In a statement, the Trussell Trust said that had created a “tsunami of need”, as people struggled to survive amidst the soaring costs of living.

Its mid-year statistics for the North of Ireland show that of the 31,687 food parcels it provided from April to September, 18,301 were for adults and 13,386 for children.

According to the trust, a parcel typically has food for one person for three days but it also provides parcels with food for one person for seven-days.

Its figures combine the provision of both types of parcel.

The Trust also its data indicated that there had been a 37% rise in the number of people in Northern Ireland using one of its food banks for the first time from April to September 2022 compared to 2021.

From April to September 2022, 9,981 adults and children were referred to one of its food banks in the North for the first time, compared to 7,270 first-time users in the same mid-year period in 2021.

The charity also said that, across the UK as a whole, one in five people using one of its food banks was from a “working household,” where either they were working or someone else they lived with was.

The trust’s figures indicate that, overall, food bank use rose sharply in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020/21 before falling slightly in 2021/22.

However, food bank use is still much higher than pre-pandemic levels.

In 2021/22 as a whole, for instance, the Trust provided 61,597 food parcels in the North of Ireland, two-thirds more than the 37,165 it provided in 2018/19.

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