Over 22,000 food parcels dished out across Cornwall during first year of pandemic
The Trussel Trust says one package was sent out every seven minutes by South West food banks last year
It has been revealed that over 22,000 emergency food parcels have been dished out by foodbanks across Cornwall over the past year.
The Trussell Trust reports that food banks in its network across the South West provided 202,000 emergency food parcels to people facing crisis between April 2020 and March 2021.
A total of 80,000 of these went to children – that’s one parcel every seven minutes on average.
These figures mark an 24% increase on the year before when 163,000 emergency food parcels were distributed in total across the South West by food banks in the Trussell Trust network.
Worryingly, these figures are just the tip of the iceberg with unprecedented numbers of people being helped by other food aid providers and community-based groups that sprang up to provide emergency food during the pandemic.
Hunger in the UK isn’t about food, the charity says, it’s about people not having enough money for the basics and with high rates of unemployment and record redundancies, more people than ever need the social security system to provide a strong enough lifeline to stay afloat
Across the UK, the Trussell Trust is reporting record levels of need as more than 2.5 million emergency food parcels were given to people during the last 12 months; more than 980,000 of these parcels went to children.
The Trussell Trust is now urgently calling on all levels of government to act. It’s urging candidates from all parties standing in the upcoming May local elections and Mayoral elections to commit to working to end the need for food banks and developing a plan to do so, if elected.
Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust, said:
“No one should face the indignity of needing emergency food.
"Yet our network of food banks across the South West have continued to provide huge numbers of emergency food parcels as more and more people struggle without enough money for the essentials.
"This is not right but we know we can build a better future.
"This pandemic has shown the unexpected can hit suddenly, but we know when we push for change, united by our desire for justice and compassion, the government has to listen and act."
Truro Foodbank
Truro foodbank has fed 3797 people between 1st April 2020 and 13th March 2021.
That includes 2293 adults and 1504 children, equaling 34,000 meals.
They also gave out over 2500 meals in school top up bags before this Easter holiday.
The increase in food distributed has gone from 35 tonnes in 2018/19 to 65 tonnes in 2020/21.
The branch also received a £500 donation from Pirate FM's Tonne of Tins appeal.
Simon Fann is the Truro Foodbank Manager - he told us what the money will be used for:
"As demand has increased the use of the van, which is essential, has to be considered. So some money can be used towards running costs. But we were really surprised by the requests from schools for the top up food for children during the Easter holidays.
"We were able to just do that out of current stock, but that was for two weeks, not the 6 weeks of summer.
"So the other usage for the money will be to make sure we have enough stock for the top up bags for summer holidays without that demand draining our usual stock that we supply to people in food crisis."