SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan has expressed serious concerns about growing food bank usage across the North of Ireland.
The Trussell Trust provided a record number of 81,084 emergency food parcels between April 2022 and March 2023.
And it provided 35,334 food parcels to children.
Said the Foyle MLA: “The level of food bank usage has now surpassed the already high levels during the pandemic.
“It is testament to the desperate situation facing so many individuals and their families.
“No modern and progressive society should be reliant on foodbanks to feed its citizens yet that has been the reality since the introduction of Welfare Reform on these shores.
“It is particularly alarming that more than 35,000 emergency parcels were for children.
“We have witnessed usage increase year on year and it borders on criminal that we don’t have a functioning government to mitigate against the impacts of the cost of living crisis and support struggling households who are facing an uphill battle in the absence of Stormont intervention.
“This is an incredibly difficult time for people right across the North and as worrying as they are, these figures are sadly not surprising. Behind each number, each parcel is a family with children, desperate and in need of the most basic of support.
“While food banks do amazing work and provide emergency support for so many, we need a functioning executive in place to provide financial support directly to those suffering hardship.
“We cannot become so accustomed to crisis that hunger in our communities should become a new normal.
“These figures lay bare the horrific outworkings of Tory austerity and the Cost of Living crisis.
“I want to pay tribute to those tireless volunteers and staff at foodbanks who have worked so hard to support people over the last few years.
“If we are genuinely committed to building a fairer society, the DUP must end the siege of Stormont which is starving our people and strangling resources.”
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