The head of the UK’s biggest food bank network has vowed to put them “out of business” and reverse a trend in which “sticking plaster” food charity handouts are increasingly normalised as a response to growing poverty and destitution.
The comments by Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust, came as the charity reported a 47% rise in food parcels given out by its volunteers between April and September – reflecting an explosion in demand for food aid during the pandemic, including from “newly hungry” families who had fallen into hardship.
“We have to find better ways of supporting one another as a society than leaving people to rely on food charity,” said Revie in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s not just about ending food banks, it’s about finding an alternative to the need for mass distribution of charity food in the fifth wealthiest country in the world.”
The trust revealed that during the first six months of the pandemic it distributed 1.2m food parcels, of which 470,000 went to families with children. April was its busiest ever month, while the volume of food it handed out went up by 59% compared with the same time in 2019.
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