A survey by think tank Centre for the Modern Family shows people are being battered by increased living costs and falling wages. 20 per cent of families are struggling to cope financially while another two-fifths are “just getting by”. Another survey confirms that a fifth of adults - 11 million people - have absolutely no savings.
Falling incomes and welfare spending cuts have triggered an explosion in demand for emergency food parcels as Britain's poorest families struggle to put a meal on the table, say charities.
FareShare, a charity that supplies millions of free meals to charities, food banks and breakfast clubs using food donated by supermarkets, said it could not keep pace with demand, which it expected to continue growing for at least five years. FareShare said the food it distributed in 2011-12 contributed to more than 8.6 million meals, benefiting an average 36,500 people a day via 720 organisations that deal with people in food poverty. FareShare estimates it could provide 70 million free meals if just 1% of the estimated 3 million tonnes of food fit for consumption "wasted" each year in the UK by the food industry was rescued.
Britain's biggest food-bank network, the Trussell Trust charity, reported in April it had doubled the number of emergency food parcels issued over the past year and was opening food banks at the rate of two a week. The trust, which operates 201 UK food banks on a franchise basis, reported l in April that it had fed 128,000 people over the past year, distributing 1,225 tonnes of food donated by the public, schools and businesses. It estimates that half a million people a year will be in receipt of a food parcel by 2016, by which time it aims to have opened 500 food banks. Chris Mould, director of the Trussell Trust, said: "Every day we meet parents who are skipping meals to feed their children or even considering stealing to stop their children going to bed hungry. It is shocking that there is such a great need for food banks in 21st-century Britain, but the need is growing."
The Salvation Army, whose churches issue food parcels on an informal basis, said its biggest distribution point, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, was so inundated this year it had to temporarily restrict food parcels to people referred by local charities and health professionals.
Falling incomes and welfare spending cuts have triggered an explosion in demand for emergency food parcels as Britain's poorest families struggle to put a meal on the table, say charities.
FareShare, a charity that supplies millions of free meals to charities, food banks and breakfast clubs using food donated by supermarkets, said it could not keep pace with demand, which it expected to continue growing for at least five years. FareShare said the food it distributed in 2011-12 contributed to more than 8.6 million meals, benefiting an average 36,500 people a day via 720 organisations that deal with people in food poverty. FareShare estimates it could provide 70 million free meals if just 1% of the estimated 3 million tonnes of food fit for consumption "wasted" each year in the UK by the food industry was rescued.
Britain's biggest food-bank network, the Trussell Trust charity, reported in April it had doubled the number of emergency food parcels issued over the past year and was opening food banks at the rate of two a week. The trust, which operates 201 UK food banks on a franchise basis, reported l in April that it had fed 128,000 people over the past year, distributing 1,225 tonnes of food donated by the public, schools and businesses. It estimates that half a million people a year will be in receipt of a food parcel by 2016, by which time it aims to have opened 500 food banks. Chris Mould, director of the Trussell Trust, said: "Every day we meet parents who are skipping meals to feed their children or even considering stealing to stop their children going to bed hungry. It is shocking that there is such a great need for food banks in 21st-century Britain, but the need is growing."
The Salvation Army, whose churches issue food parcels on an informal basis, said its biggest distribution point, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, was so inundated this year it had to temporarily restrict food parcels to people referred by local charities and health professionals.
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