General Election fact watch: Food bank use has risen under the Conservatives

A Trussell Trust food bank in St Paul's Church in Brixton in 2012.
Getty Images
16 May 2017
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Key quote: “They [The Conservatives] are content that foodbank usage on their watch has shot up.”

John McDonnell MP, 25 April 2017

Analysis:

The Trussell Trust is the largest food bank network in the UK.

Use of their food banks has gone up since 2010. The Trust handed out around 41,000 food packs in 2009/10 compared to 1.2 million in 2016/17.

The Trust says that the average person using a food bank will do so twice in a year, so it estimates that around 590,000 different people used its services in 2016/17.

A 2014 estimate suggested that the Trussell Trust’s food banks make up around half (420) of the food banks in the UK. So the actual number of food parcels handed out across the UK, and the number of users of food banks, is likely to be higher.

The number of food banks has also increased since 2010 so more people have access to a food bank now. That means we can’t be sure from these figures alone that the increasing use of food banks is due to increasing demand.

It may be that demand has stayed the same but there are now more services available for people to use.

Verdict: Use of Trussell Trust food banks has gone up since 2010. But because the number of food banks in the UK has also risen since 2010 we can’t be sure from these figures alone that the increasing use of food banks is due to increasing demand.

Full Fact is the UK's independent fact-checking organisation. For sources and more fact checks go to fullfact.org.

To learn more about Full Fact's election crowdfunder click here.

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