A new report by the food bank charity Trussel Trust, released on Wednesday, has found that one in seven people faced hunger last year in the UK due to not having enough money to purchase food.
The survey noted that this was equal to 11.3 million Britons, which is more than twice the population of Scotland. Among the most affected were ethnic minorities, disabled people, and carers. The researchers said the crisis was directly attributable to the cost of living crisis which is affecting the entire nation, and which shows little sign of abating any time soon.
Responsible for running over 1,200 food banks across its network, the charity trust runs about two-thirds of the total in the UK. In the year to March, the charity reports it supplied a record 3 million parcels of food to needy recipients, which represents a surge of 37%, and more than double the amount it was delivering just five years ago. It added, that the results of its latest report were “just the tip of the iceberg.”
In the year to mid-2022, roughly 7% of Britain’s population received charitable food support, however 71% of Britons confronted with food shortages said they had not yet accessed any such support.
Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie said, “Food banks are not the answer when people are going without the essentials in one of the richest economies in the world. We need a social security system which provides protection and the dignity for people to cover their own essentials, such as food and bills.”
As Britons are confronted with spiraling inflation that has eaten away at the salaries of workers across all sectors of the economy, UK households have found themselves struggling amidst the harshest pressures on living standards seen since records began being kept in the 1950’s.
The report noted, “This consistent upward trajectory exposes that it is weaknesses in the social security system that are driving food bank need, rather than just the pandemic or cost-of-living crisis.”
According to the most recent official data, British food inflation has come in at 18.3% in May and 14.6% in June.
As consumer price growth continues to soar in Britain despite policymakers continuing to raise rates, trade unions and other officials have accused supermarkets especially, of “greedflation” and profiteering while consumers go hungry.
