Overwhelmed food banks are unable to cope with unprecedented demand and are being forced to turn away families in need as more people are falling into hardship due to the UK’s cost of living crisis.
Several managers told The Independent that they were forced to have a “painful” discussion about caps on the number of people they can help as they ran out of food this summer.
The Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan), a network of 550 groups across Britain, said the safety net was “crumbling” because of the ongoing rise in the number seeking support, with empty shelves increasingly widespread.
The Trussell Trust – which runs a network of more than 1,300 food banks – said “many” of its outlets had been hit by shortages as demand rises.
A coalition of 70 charities urged Tory leadership contenders – Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – to more than double the level of emergency support to low-income families in order to avert a “catastrophe” this winter, while Labour joined the Liberal Democrats in calling for the energy price cap to be frozen.
