Five-fold Rise in Food Bank Use

A rise in food bank use is a "damning indictment of an increasingly unequal Britain', according to Oxfam.

And the charity says there's no signs of any improvement.

Across the UK 20 million people sought help, Scotttish centres gave out 640,000 meals in the last year, that's a five-fold rise.

The Trussell Trust, the country's largest foodbank organiser, says it helped more than 22 thousand children last year.

Niall Cooper, CEO of Church Action on Poverty, said: “Protecting its people from going hungry is one of the most fundamental duties of Government. Most of us assume that when we fall on hard times, the social security safety net will kick in, and prevent us falling into destitution and hunger.

“We want all political parties to commit to re-instating the safety net principle as a core purpose of the social security system, and draw up proposals to ensure that no one in the UK should go hungry.”  

Oxfam, Church Action Poverty and The Trussell Trust are calling on the UK Government to urgently draw up an action plan to reverse the "rising tide" of food poverty, and to collect evidence to understand the scale and cause of the increases in food bank usage.

They are also calling on all political parties to re-instate the social safety net principle as a core purpose of the welfare system.

Ewan Gurr, Trussell Trust’s Scotland Development Officer, said: "Among the 71,000 people our food banks in Scotland provided emergency food to in 2013/14, 22,387 were children.

“Creative solutions and systemic change are necessary if we are to tackle the threat of food poverty and the explosion in demand for emergency food.

"We celebrate the way our food banks respond to need but we do not celebrate the need that demands their existence."

Frances Stewart, from Oxfam Scotland, says there is a definite need for foodbanks: