Kettle boxes, queues outside the door and eating cold beans - crisis at food banks as demand reaches record high
manchestereveningnews.co.ukThe number of emergency food parcels handed out to hungry families across Greater Manchester has almost doubled in the last five years.
The Trussell Trust distributed 138,347 aid packages in our region in the year to March. That compares to the 70,831 between April 2017 and March 2018 - a 95 per cent increase.
The figures include all boroughs but Bury, as the charity has no foodbank there. As the cost of living crisis bites, bosses at the charity say an increasing number of people are being left with no option but to turn to charity to get by.
And the most recent figures also show the level of need was greater than during the first year of the pandemic. This story first appeared in the Mancunian Way newsletter - sign up here to get it first each day Charity bosses say the level of need across the network is ‘far outstripping the donations that we’ve been receiving’, meaning food banks are having to purchase more food themselves and source more warehouse space to store it.
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