A RECORD number of food parcels have been delivered to struggling families in Northern Ireland over the past year.
From April 2023 to May 2024 more than 90,000 emergency food parcels were distributed across the North through the Trussell Trust’s food bank network, the charity confirmed in its latest report.
The total figure of 90,300 is the highest number of food parcels that the network has ever delivered in Northern Ireland and marks an 11 per cent increase on the 2022/23 levels.
The percentage increase is higher than that of England (five per cent) and Wales (one per cent) while Scotland’s figure for this year remained relatively unchanged from the previous year, the report states.
The Trussell Trust’s Cost of Hunger and Hardship Report, which was published yesterday (October 9), further revealed that 200,000 people in Northern Ireland are currently facing hunger, including 62,000 children.
In its findings, the charity claims the “significant increase” in need seen in the North in recent years may be linked to the “soaring cost of living”.
“The cost of essentials has continued to rise in this period,” the report authors state.
“While it is welcome that inflation is slowing, the continued high inflation in the cost of essentials, particularly food, continued to make it harder for families to make ends meet,” they add.
In a breakdown of their figures for the North, the Trussell Trust revealed that of the food parcels delivered in the past year 51,795 were for adults and 38,584 were for children.
It adds that 23,700 people were forced to use a food bank for the first time in Northern Ireland last year.
SDLP Communities Spokesperson Daniel McCrossan said the Northern Ireland Executive must act now to tackle hunger and food poverty in the North.
“The growing numbers of people facing hunger in the North should shame our Executive who have done little to tackle this issue since the re-establishment of the Stormont institutions,” the West Tyrone MLA said.
“Behind these statistics are families, including children, who are going hungry because they don’t have enough to eat.
“Older people who face the choice between paying for heating or food and parents who skip meals so that their children can eat.”
He added: “This is not a problem that has sprung up or will be solved overnight.
"In the last decade we have seen a huge increase in the number of food banks springing up here and without this vital lifeline there’s no doubt things would be even worse.
“We can’t continue to rely on the community sector to step up and support people where the Executive has failed to make any meaningful intervention.”
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