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Charity issues half-million emergency food parcels to families across Britain

Xinhua, November 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

More than 500,000 three day emergency food parcels were distributed to British families in crisis in the past six months, a charity said Tuesday.

In its new report, the anti-poverty charity said the number of people helped since April means that the foodbank network is on course to distribute the highest number of food parcels in its 12-year history during 2016-17.

The Trussell Trust said 188,500 children lived in families receiving help since April, with 44 percent of people seeking help unable to afford food because of issues with welfare benefits.

The charity called Tuesday for a foodbank telephone hotline to local government-run job centers to support people in crisis more quickly and efficiently, saying it would reduce the negative impact on mental wellbeing.

Between April and September 2016, Trussell Trust foodbanks across Britain distributed 519,342 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis compared to 506,369 during the same period last year.

After issues with welfare benefits, low income was the second largest cause of a crisis, accounting for nearly one in four of all referrals to the charity.The trust said people sought help from foodbanks driven by problems such as low pay, insecure work or rising costs.

The trust's CEO David McAuley said: "To stop UK hunger we must make sure the welfare system works fairly and compassionately, stopping people getting to a point where they have no money to eat."

In London the trust handed out 50,000 food parcels to families. But the highest number of food parcels distributed was in the industrial north west of England with almost 78,000 families helped in the past six months. Scotland was second with almost 66,000 parcels handed out.

The Trussell Trust says its figures cannot be used to fully explain the scale of the food poverty across Britain because its figures only relate to Trussell Trust foodbanks and not to hundreds of other independent food aid providers.

"There is no official data on other food aid projects, but estimates suggest that there are likely to be the same number again of non-Trussell Trust food bank style projects in Britain," said a spokesman at the trust. Endit