'Winter is always our busiest time of the year', says manager of Worcester food bank
Over 61,000 emergency food parcels were distributed last winter between December 2024 and February 2025 to people across the West Midlands according to the charity Trussell
Last updated 6th Dec 2025
Worcester food bank has said it's expecting to see the rise in demand it usually gets around the Christmas period.
New figures from Trussell show between December 2024 and February 2025 over 61,000 emergency food parcels given out in the West Midlands, a 27% increase compared to the time five years ago in 2019-2020.
The charity say almost 22,000 were provided for children, 19% higher than figures from that same period.
"Winter is always our busiest time of year," said Grahame Lucas, manager of Worcester food bank.
"Particularly in December where we anticipate this year we will probably be handing out something like 500 parcels.
"So in just Worcester food bank alone we will be issuing parcels out at a pretty fast pace and we anticipate that level of activity will carry on across the winter period."
Mr Lucas added numbers do tend to change in the new year but remain high.
"January and February are usually a lot less busy but we still see an awful lost of people coming to us because of their costs over the winter period," he said.
"The support we provide is really important for everybody that turns to us, it's important because people turn to us in crisis, they come to us because they can't put food on the table because they have insufficient money.
"They might be in employment but they still have insufficient money to pay all the bills and to feed their families."
A Government spokesperson said: "Food bank use is a blight on the country and although it went down last year, we are determined to do more.
"To help with everyday costs we've increased the National Minimum Wage, meaning an extra £1,500 a year for full-time workers, as well as taking £150 off energy bills from April and recommitting to the Triple Lock.
"Thanks to our decision to scrap the two-child limit and introduce a wider package of measures for families we will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by the end of this parliament."