Aberdeen North foodbank, along with food banks across the UK, are bracing for the worst winter yet and expect that more emergency food parcels than ever will be distributed.
Aberdeen North foodbank is facing unprecedented pressure this winter, as the number of people needing to access foodbanks is expected to surge this winter.
Across the UK, foodbanks are expecting to provide more than one million emergency food parcels between December 2023 and February 2024 – the most parcels ever provided across this period. This equates to an average of one food parcel every eight seconds (11,500 a day) and 7,000 people seeking support each day.
In Aberdeen the foodbank is calling on the local community to donate food, if they can, to ensure that they can continue to support everyone who needs their help.
Between December and February last year, these foodbanks supported more than 220,000 children with emergency food, and 225,000 people who needed to use a food bank for the first time but it is anticipated these numbers will be even higher this year.
The soaring cost of living has exposed and exacerbated existing issues, such as our inadequate social security system, and is driving record numbers of people on the lowest incomes to food banks. Although foodbanks are doing everything they can to help, they’re already working flat-out.
In Aberdeen North foodbank, donations of food have stayed relatively stable. Despite this the increasing number of people needing emergency food parcels means that not enough food is coming in, and the food bank is having to buy more to supplement donations.
Aberdeen North foodbank needs your help to make sure that they can be there for people on the lowest incomes this winter. The food bank is buying more food than ever at a time when prices are higher than ever because the sharp increase in people needing help is outstripping food donations.
In December to February last winter, Aberdeen North foodbank provided over 3800 emergency parcels to people within the local community. Staff and volunteers have also provided countless hours of compassion, guidance, and expert support to people who had nowhere else to turn.
Emma Revie, Chief Executive of the Trussell Trust, said: “We don’t want to spend every winter saying things at foodbanks are getting worse, but they are. One in seven people in the UK face hunger because they don’t have enough money to live on. That’s not the kind of society we want to live in, and we won’t stand by and let this continue. Every year we are seeing more and more people needing foodbanks, and that is just not right. Together, we have roots into hundreds of communities, and while someone facing hunger can’t change the structural issues driving the need for food banks on their own, thousands of us coming together can. We must end hunger across the UK so that no one needs a foodbank to survive.”
You can find out more about Aberdeen North foodbank, and details of the items we are most in need of here!