Food bank increase 'should be a wake-up call'

A 56% increase in the number of food parcels provided to families with children in the South East over five years should be a "wake-up call", said the Trussell Trust.

The food bank charity warned that planned welfare changes and the failure to end the two child limit would make the situation even worse.

Sumi Rabindrakumar, head of policy at Trussell Trust, said under-fives faced the highest risk of any age group, adding: "The issue particularly affects young children."

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said: "This Government is determined to change people's lives for the better, helping them out of poverty and tackling the unacceptable rise in food bank dependence in recent years."

The DWP spokesperson added: "As part of our Plan for Change we are extending the Household Support Fund, launching 750 breakfast clubs across the country and making changes to Universal Credit to give a £420 boost to over one million households."

The Trussell Trust said it provided more than 310,000 emergency food parcels across the South East between April 2024 and March 2025, compared with 119,519 from April 2019 to March 2020.

Mike Barlow, from East Grinstead Foodbank, said they were seeing "far too many people who are forced to need our help".

He said: "Food donations are not keeping up with the level of need we are seeing, and this is putting us under a lot of strain.

"It's not right that anyone should be forced to turn to charity for emergency food."

Ms Rabindrakumar said: "The long-term trend is things are likely to get worse before they get better.

"If the UK government doesn't change course it will see increasing levels of food bank need and deepening hardship.

"They need to rethink cuts, lift the two child limit and update universal credit so people can afford the increase."

This is something Rebecca, from Worthing, agrees with.

Having used food banks before, she said she would "probably" become more reliant on them when the welfare changes come in.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced plans designed to bring down the spend on sickness and disability benefits, which has massively increased over the last few years and is forecast to hit £70bn a year by the end of the decade.

The measures are expected to reduce this spending by more than £5bn a year by 2029-30.

Rebecca said the changes would make her "more dependent" on food banks, adding: "I probably would have to go every week."

Julie Coates, manager of the Trussell Trust's Hailsham food bank, said they had seen a positive impact from their financial inclusion facilities.

She told BBC Radio Surrey that over the past three years the trust has funded extra services where people on site offer things such as debt advice or benefits information.

She said: "It shortens the time they need to use our services and hopefully they won't need to come back to us longer term."

Ms Coates said they had seen a reduction in people using their food bank as people were being helped "much quicker".

She said: "We are not seeing so many repeat visits.

"We are still seeing lots of new people but the people who are coming are not having to visit us so many times."

Mr Barlow encouraged people to donate food or funds to their local food banks "to help make sure everyone in our community can access support in times of hardship".

People can use the free app BanktheFood to find out which items food banks need.

Mr Barlow said: "It's vital we get the food we need when we need it."

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