Food Parcel Distribution Increases by 45% in North Lincolnshire Over Past Five Years

There has been a 45% increase in the number of food parcels that have been given out to people in North Lincolnshire over the past five years.

76,717 of them were given out between 2023-2024 compared to 4,617 back in 2019-2020.

The Trussell Trust food bank network said the figures had risen for packages for both adults and children and the total is now almost double that of five years ago.

Tim Parker, manager, Scunthorpe Foodbank, said:

“In the last year, we fed well over 6500 people and the way that distribute is similar to the national picture which is 2/3 to adults and 1/3 to children. A lot of the food parcels we give out are to families with children.

“In the past year, we’ve had to regularly top up our donations that we get from schools, faith organisation and community groups. We’ve had to top up £10,000 that we’ve had to pay out this year.”

There were 3,121,404 parcels distributed by food banks in its network across England up to the end of March, made up of 1,977,308 for adults and 1,144,096 for children.

The charity said first-time users - of which there were 655,000 in that 12-month period - were down slightly on last year but up 40% from five years ago.

Parcels going to households that had someone of pension age living there were up by more than a quarter (27%) to 179,000, the organisation said, noting that older people, especially renters, were "finding themselves unable to afford essentials and facing hunger and severe hardship".