Food Bank Use Hits Six-Figure Record

More than 100,000 people used Scottish foodbanks in the last year, up 65% on the previous 12 months, according to new figures.

The Trussell Trust said 36,114 children were among the 117,689 people who received a three-day supply of emergency nutrition from one of their foodbanks in the 2014/15 financial year.

The most recent year saw the Scottish total reach six figures for the first time and came as the number of people using foodbanks across the UK hit a record one million, including almost 400,000 children.

Benefit delays and low incomes were among the reasons cited for causing people to seek the help.

Labour described the Scottish figure - the equivalent of two full Hampden stadiums - as shocking, while the SNP branded it shameful.

And the Trussell Trust warned that the full extent of the problem could be much wider because their figures do not include people helped by other food charities.

The statistics show that in the last financial year to March 31, 33,408 (28%) people used a Trussell Trust foodbank in Scotland due to a benefit delay, 24,609 (21%) people cited low income and 20,387 (17%) pointed to a benefit change.

The Trussell Trust's Scotland network manager Ewan Gurr said: Despite welcome signs of economic recovery, hunger continues to affect significant numbers of men, women and children in Scotland. The full extent of the problem could well be much wider as the Trussell Trust figures do not include people who are helped by other food charities or those who feel too ashamed to seek help.

Trussell Trust foodbanks are increasingly hosting additional services like debt counselling and welfare advice at our foodbanks, which is helping more people out of crisis. The latest figures highlight how vital it is that we all work to prevent and relieve hunger in the United Kingdom.''

In 2011 there was one foodbank in Scotland operating in partnership with the Trussell Trust. The trust now has 50 foodbanks in 27 Scottish local authorities.

Between 2011 and 2013 Scotland experienced faster growth in the number of foodbanks launching than any other UK region, the organisation said.

Scottish Labour said the latest figures showed that the country needs the change that will come with a UK Labour government''.

Pointing to his party's five-point plan to end the need for foodbanks, leader Jim Murphy said: The fact that the number of Scots using food banks could now fill Hampden twice over should sicken us all and remind us why we need to get rid of the uncaring government causing this misery.

It is an absolute scandal that working people are forced to turn to food banks to feed their children. It's a scandal that wages aren't stretching far enough and hours aren't guaranteed. That has to change, and Labour has a plan to change it. We'll raise the minimum wage, extend the living wage and we'll ban exploitative zero hours contracts.''

He added: The work of food bank volunteers is inspiring, but the need for food banks at all is enraging. On May 7 we can elect a government that can wage war on poverty and win. Scotland needs an alternative to Tory austerity that tackles these problems head on.''

The SNP said its manifesto commits SNP MPs to action to help tackle child poverty, by opposing further cuts to Child Benefit and Tax Credit and supporting increasing free childcare to 30 hours a week by 2020.

Banff & Buchan candidate Dr Eilidh Whiteford said: The rise of foodbanks is utterly shameful and there is surely no clearer demonstration of the wilful damage that Tory austerity has caused to communities in Scotland and across the UK.

Foodbank use has risen by two thirds and tens of thousands of children in Scotland have had to rely on food parcels in the last year.

It is an absolute disgrace and the Tories' studied complacency on this issue underlines why it is so important that we are able to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street.''