One in 10 parents ‘very likely to use UK food bank’

The Trussell Trust has said that nearly one in 10 parents are ‘very likely’ to use a food bank to feed their children over the next three months.

The survey findings indicate that as many as 1.3 million parents are expecting to have to visit a food bank as families struggle to cope with rising costs of living, with 88 per cent of those surveyed admitting their monthly food bill has increased in the past three months alone.

The research, carried out alongside Deliveroo, also found that a third of parents skipped at least one meal to keep up with other costs, while 20 per cent said they had been unable to cook hot food at least once in the past three months because of the cost of using an oven.

The charity is set to enter a partnership with Deliveroo to provide up to two million meals and support for people facing hunger across the country.

Emma Revie, the chief executive of the Trussell Trust, said: “Everyone should be able to afford their own food, but as families face the biggest income squeeze in a generation, people are telling us they’re having to make impossible decisions between heating and eating and being forced to turn to food banks to feed themselves.

“Our new partnership with Deliveroo will help us support food banks to provide emergency food and in-food-bank support to thousands of people in immediate crisis while we work towards our long-term vision of a future where nobody needs to turn to charity to get by.”