After everything the Trussell community has borne witness to over the last few years, you’d forgive us for feeling bleak about the future. But the lengths of compassion our communities are prepared to go to, with every person stepping up to keep food banks going, never fails to amaze me. In fact, it can, and regularly does, bring me to tears.
Whether that’s our volunteers, staff, or people donating supplies to help their neighbours, we see how together we can unlock the power of communities and create lasting change. Food banks today aren’t just about emergency food. They can offer debt advice and support navigating our very complicated social security system. They offer direct links to other services in the community – and a cup of tea and a listening ear.
They’re also challenging everyday injustices, building their collective power to push for change. Because no one in the Trussell community wants to be providing emergency food in another 25 years.
We face a generational challenge in tackling the record levels of hunger and hardship in our communities. Last year, food banks provided 3.1 million emergency food parcels in the Trussell community alone – more still will have been provided by other charitable food providers.
Our research shows that the majority of people who can’t afford the essentials don’t receive any kind of charity food support at all. It found that 9.3 million people face hunger and hardship. So many more people need support than our food parcel numbers are possibly able to show. Our communities are facing impossible decisions in a way they have not had to before.
This new reality of persistent, deep hardship, where people are routinely deciding which essentials they go without, should be unacceptable. In fact, we know it is – the vast majority of voters, across party lines, agree that food banks shouldn’t exist in a modern society. So much of what we see there is holding back our future generations. Every year, the majority of emergency food parcels in the Trussell community go to families with children. These families, particularly single parents, face a disproportionate risk of hunger and having to turn to a food bank for support.
Andrew, a single father from Scotland, told us: “All I want is to make her smile, because she’s been through enough. But it’s tough. I make sure that Mia doesn’t see that I am regularly skipping meals so that she can eat.” Our latest research found three million children face hunger and hardship. Shockingly, under-fives face the highest risk of any age group – one in four faces hunger and hardship. Barriers are especially acute for parents: from childcare costs to being unable to get more hours at work or invest in new skills or being stuck in poor housing.
And the impact is, of course, felt not just by parents, but by children too. Children are missing out at school, unable to fully participate in educational or extra-curricular activities. Stigma and bullying can mean some children feel isolated from their peers. If we are genuinely worried about the mental health crisis among young people, or about boosting employment, or economic growth then addressing hunger and hardship matters.
We undertook a major modelling exercise, looking carefully at the links between hunger and hardship and increased health risks, stalled educational journeys, employment and wage scarring, and much more. We found hunger and hardship costs the UK £75bn a year in costs to the economy, our government and public services. Over £4bn comes from just costs to education and children’s social care alone.
This government cannot deliver on living standards or the economy unless it is serious about addressing deep financial hardship. Families with children have borne a disproportionate burden of austerity, through specific social security cuts like the two-child limit and benefit cap, as well as public service cuts. These are poverty-creating choices.
In the face of growing hardship, food banks are at breaking point. This cannot continue. But if we are to see a future where no one needs a food bank to survive, we all need to play our part. We can be there for families today, supporting our community organisations providing lifelines to households right across the UK. And we can pull together to push for a better tomorrow.
This article first appeared in our Spotlight on Child Poverty supplement, of 23 May 2025, guest edited by Gordon Brown.
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