Sunday, February 23, 2014

Food banks set to feed a million people this year


 Record number of families 'at end of their tether' forced to ask food banks for emergency rations

Helping hand: Head of Trussell Trust food banks Chris Mould
The number of Britons using food banks to survive is set to top a million this year as a record number of families ask for the emergency handouts.

The shock figure comes after 41 church leaders blamed the Coalition’s benefits regime for forcing people into starvation and called for it to act.

The Trussell Trust, the UK’s largest food bank network, fed 738,000 people last year – and bosses expect numbers to soar again.

Boss Chris Mould said: “We could easily hit a million this year, and that’s really distressing. Somebody in a food bank is at the end of their tether. They have run out of resources.”

The Trussell Trust provides three days’ emergency food for people referred by agencies including job centres, GPs and social workers.

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