A MASSIVE increase in the number of people using foodbanks in Scotland has been recorded by a major charity.
The Trussell Trust announced today that more than 100,000 people, almost one third of them children, used their foodbanks in the 2014-2015 financial year – a 65 per cent increase on the year before and the equivalent of two packed Murrayfield stadiums.
The total UK figure broke one million for the first time with Scotland ranking second, behind the north west of England, for emergency food provision.
Much of the demand has been driven by people on low incomes and those suffering delays or changes to their benefits.
Charity workers have described the increase of referrals, particularly those due to low incomes, as “extremely worrying” and say they are increasingly having to provide additional services like debt counselling and welfare advice at foodbanks.
“The major issue we have seen this year and are concerned about is that Scotland has second highest figure in the UK for emergency food provision,” said Scotland Network Manager Ewan Gurr.
“We had one food bank in 2011 and we have now got 50. To put it into context we could fill Murrayfield twice over with the number of people in Scotland using food banks.”
Between 2011 and 2013, Scotland experienced faster growth in the number of foodbanks launching with The Trussell Trust than any other region in the United Kingdom.
Last year The Trussell Trust foodbanks in Scotland were responsible for 10.85 per cent of the overall emergency food provision in the United Kingdom. Scotland’s population comprises 8.2 per cent of the UK whole.
People on low income were responsible for the biggest numerical rise with 24,609 people referred in 2014-15 compared with 13,552 in 2013-14.
Of the total numbers, people on low income account for 21 per cent of those using Trussell Trust foodbanks in Scotland, with 28 per cent using them due to a benefit delay and 17 per cent due to a benefit change.
“It is really quite concerning how low income has proportionately been the biggest rise,” said Gurr. “It boils down to issues of rising costs of food and fuel with fuel rising 30 per cent over the last five years, food costs rising 20 per cent but incomes not keeping pace with that.
“Families more than ever are suffering from financial fatigue. Everything is extremely difficult and the rises in costs are really devastating for some families.”
The Trussell Trust has revealed that last year 117,689 people, including 36,114 children, received a three-day supply of emergency food from a Trussell Trust foodbank but points out that the full extent of the problem could be much wider as their figures do not include people helped by other food charities or those too ashamed to seek help.
One Trussell Trust foodbank user, “Suzanne”, said she had to stop breastfeeding her son because she wasn’t eating enough food to produce milk. She said:
“That was devastating for me on top of the fact that I was struggling to juggle everything. Then we came across The Trussell Trust. These people actually wanted to hear what was going on in our lives and wanted to help us, not just with the food but the emotional support they gave us.”
Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife then Dundee have the highest numbers of Trussell Trust foodbank users in Scotland. In Edinburgh, where the number is nearly 14,000, project manager Euan Walker said nearly one-quarter of the people coming to the food banks were there because of low incomes, an increase of eight per cent on the previous year.
“That large rise is very worrying,” he added. “Benefits are always an issue but low income is another area where people are struggling because their wages have not increased or they are on zero hour contracts.”
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