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Food banks warn they are struggling to meet demand

Food banks across the UK have faced an increase in demand since the start of the year, coupled with a decline in food donations

Food banks across the UK have told Money Box they are facing increased demand, but falling donations, as the cost of living crisis bites people across the income range. This research, which took place in June, covered 116 out of 505 organisations which are part of IFAN - the Independent Food Aid Network. Those 116 organisations cover 203 food banks across the UK and 9 out of 10 of them told us they had seen an increase in demand since the start of this year. More than half said they've also seen seen food donations fall. IFAN, a registered charity and anti-poverty campaign group, helps run food banks which tend to be run by volunteers across local communities. For context, we don't know how many food banks there are in the UK, but the Trussell Trust, which has its own network of more than 1,400 of them, recently reported giving out more than 2.1 million food parcels in the year to March.

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Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researcher: Sandra Hardial
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 23rd July, 12pm)

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29 minutes

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Sun 24 Jul 2022 21:00

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