Emergency food parcels in Newport Trussell Trust food banks

The Trussell Trust published its annual figures on Wednesday, covering the period from April 1 last year to March 31.

The figures showed that 3,949 emergency food parcels were handed out to people in Newport at Trussell Trust-run food banks in the year to the end of March.

This is fewer than the 5,025 packages which were distributed in the city in the year to March 31, 2021, and slightly less than the 4,032 provided in the year before that – prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the past year, 37 per cent – or 1,472 –  of the packages handed out at Trussell Trust-run food banks in Newport were given to children. This number was at 1,538 in the year before the pandemic.  

Wales-wide, a total of 131,232 emergency food parcels were distributed at Trussell Trust food banks, of which 48,536 went to children.

The Trussell Trust has warned that the need for food banks in Wales will continue to rise in the coming months due to the £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit and the soaring rise in living costs. 

The charity said that pressure is now building again in its network of food banks, with a four per cent increase in the period from October 2021 to February 2022 when compared to the same period pre-pandemic (2019-20).

It has now called on the Welsh Government to work with food banks and people with lived experience of poverty to develop a plan to reduce and prevent the need for emergency food in Wales. 

The Trussell Trust-run food banks in Gwent are:

• Newport Food Bank.
• Eastern Valley Food Bank.
• Abergavenny Food Bank.
• Monmouth and District Food Bank.
• Chepstow Food Bank.
• Blaenau Gwent Food Bank.
• Risca Food Bank.
• Blackwood & District Food Bank.
• Taff Bargoed Food Bank.
• Caerphilly Food Bank.
• Rhymney Valley Food Bank.

Susan Lloyd-Selby, Trussell Trust network lead in Wales, said: “We should all be free from hunger. No one should be pushed deeper into poverty without enough money for the essentials we all need. And yet people are telling us they’re skipping meals to feed their children and turning off the heating so they can afford internet access for their kids to do their homework. 

“This isn’t right – and food banks in our network are telling us this is only set to get worse as their communities are pushed deeper into financial hardship.

“But there is still time for governments at every level to do the right thing, and ensure the incomes of people at the sharpest end of the crisis are enough to afford the essentials we all need in life.

“That’s why we’re urging the Welsh Government to develop a plan to reduce and prevent the need for food banks in Wales and calling on the UK government to make benefits realistic for the times we face.” 

Emma Revie, chief executive of the charity, said: “How can this be right in a society like ours? And yet food banks in our network tell us this is only set to get worse as their communities are pushed deeper into financial hardship.

“No one’s income should fall so dangerously low that they cannot afford to stay fed, warm and dry.”