Foodbanks are braced for record demand from hungry families as the cost-of-living crisis accelerates next month.
Managers “planning for the worst” are “looking down the barrel” and drawing-up contingency plans for large numbers of people asking for emergency food parcels as bills rocket.
A fresh barrage of financial blows is due to batter household budgets within days, as energy bills soar by 54%, council tax climbs by an average of at least 3% in most areas, and National Insurance rises by 1.25% - all while inflation rockets at 5.4%.
Experts fear the combined increases will trigger a new spike in hunger, with hard-up Britons unable to put a meal on the table.
The Trussell Trust’s director of strategic engagement Garry Lemon warned: “I’m really worried about the coming weeks and I know people who run foodbanks are really worried about it as well.
“Every foodbank I speak to is beginning to make contingency plans, thinking about what’s going to happen in surges of need, or looking at their procedures about if a large number of people show up at the door and need help.”
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Foodbank manager Graham Carpmail, 74, said: “I think we are going to double our numbers.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak faces mounting pressure to throw poverty-stricken households a lifeline when he delivers his Spring Statement mini-Budget on Wednesday.
Welfare benefits are due to rise by 3.1% - but inflation is currently 5.4% and experts fear it will soar past 8% in the coming months.
Speaking at Queens Road Baptist Church foodbank in Coventry, Garry warned that unless Mr Sunak takes “radical action”, the contingency plans “sadly are going to be enacted and needed”.
He added: “Foodbanks are looking down the barrel of potentially hundreds of thousands of extra households and families needing support this spring and into summer, unless quite urgent and radical government action is taken - much further than has already been announced by the Chancellor.”
Garry pointed out that while costs are climbing, real incomes - after inflation is accounted for - are being eroded.
“People are getting squeezed from two directions,” he said.
“Benefits are only going to be uprated by 3.1% because that was the inflation rate at the end of last year.
“This, in effect, is going to be yet another real-terms cut to people’s benefits and is going to leave us even further behind than we were.”
He praised the Government for giving UC claimants an extra £20-a-week during the pandemic.
But he was disappointed the temporary hike was axed in October.
“It was really significant and a lifeline for people’s incomes,” he said.
“People again and again said that 20 quid a week was an absolute lifesaver and the difference between being able to turn the heating on in winter or not.
“Unfortunately, just before this winter, that was taken away again. That's a big income hit.”
Many of the same people now face seeing their income fall again once inflation eats into it.
“They’re looking at a real-terms cut to their benefits, after the £20 uplift was taken away,” said Garry.
“It’s disastrous for those families and I really don’t see how they are going to be able to make ends meet.”
The Trust, which coordinates a network of 420 organisations operating 1,300 UK centres, publishes figures every six months showing how many parcels it has distributed.
Last autumn’s update showed it handed out 935,749 emergency parcels in the six months to September.
Each package contains enough food for three meals a day for three days - meaning 8.4 million meals were distributed, or 32 a minute, between April and September.
The charity says households with children were hit hardest, with almost two in five parcels going to kids.
Garry fears the worsening cost-of-living crisis could unleash a greater demand for foodbanks than the start of the pandemic, when millions were furloughed and thousands of workers lost jobs.
“I think it’s possible we will eventually surpass the depths of what we saw during the early pandemic,” he said.
“There’s a big population of people who are struggling, it only needs a shock to their income or an unexpected cost for them to very quickly fall into real financial trouble.”
He blamed a “decade of cuts, caps and freezes to working age benefits” for leaving people vulnerable.
“When you look at people referred to Trussell Trust foodbanks, it’s people with disabilities, people with long-term illnesses, people with caring responsibilities - all groups of people particularly for whom there can be significant barriers to work and who need the support of working age benefits,” he said.
“There’s only so much foodbanks can do.
“The problem in the UK isn’t a lack of food, it’s that too many people haven’t got enough money to afford all of the essentials.
“While it’s a help and a lifeline to people getting these emergency food parcels, it’s not going to help put money in their meter or pay their rent.”
The vast majority of food given away is donated by kind-hearted supporters.
Many buy an extra couple of tins during their weekly shop to pop in a foodbank collecting bucket.
But with every household’s budget set to be hammered, they may be forced to cut back on donations.
Garry admitted the economic crisis would “inevitably” put pressure on budgets, and could lead to a fall in donated tins and packets.
“We are reliant on the generosity of the British public to put their hands in their pockets or when they go into supermarkets to pick up that extra UHT milk or that extra bit of food to put into a basket,” he said.
“It is a worry.”
A Government spokesman said: “We recognise the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, which is why we’re providing support worth £21billion this financial year and next to help.
“This includes putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families via changes to Universal Credit, freezing fuel duties to keep costs down and helping households with their energy bills through our £9.1bn Energy Bills Rebate.
“We’re also boosting the minimum wage by more than £1,000 a year for full-time workers.”
We work hard... we shouldn’t have to be scrimping
Valerie Earle weeps as she explains how much she relies on the generosity of strangers.
Wiping away tears, the 56-year-old gran says: “It means a lot to be able to come here.”
The £400 a month she receives in benefits does not provide enough cash to buy food once she covers her fixed outgoings, she says.
“My gas bill and electric bill are at least £110 a month through the winter,” reveals Valerie.
She fears the impact of rising costs due to hammer families from next month.
“It’s disgusting, I’m here now because I’m literally hungry - I could just dive in that bag and eat,” she says, pointing to a carrier packed with tins and packets.
“If they are going to put up prices, then what? I will be here weekly.
“How are people supposed to live? It’s hard, everything’s hard.”
Valerie was brought to the foodbank by her daughter Patsi, 29.
Cradling her four-month-old son Kairoh, Patsi, who is on maternity leave from her job as a coffee shop supervisor, says: “The foodbank is massively important, I think it takes a lot to even walk in the building sometimes because you don’t want to admit how difficult it is.
“But you come in and they make you feel really welcome. It’s hugely important when you’re struggling.”
The mum-of-four used the foodbank while pregnant as she battled with bills after going on maternity leave early because she was ill.
“This carried me through until my finances settled,” she says.
Patsi says of the looming cost hikes: “I have four children so knowing that everything is shooting up in price and my wages are staying the same, is really scary.
“How am I going to manage? It’s horrible, it's not nice at all.
“My council tax is one of those bills that scares me everytime it comes through anyway, let alone with it going up.
“My energy bills were manageable and affordable, but I’ve just been told mine is going up by 53%.
“I’m going to have to turn the heating off, freeze for a little bit, use duvets and more clothes.
“I’ll have to pick up more hours at work when I go back, which means I’ll have bigger childcare fees.”
Chris Nicholls, who is 64 and has learning difficulties, visits the foodbank on his mobility scooter.
“I only come here when I need food, I don’t make a habit of it,” he confides.
But he believes his trips could become more frequent as inflation tears into his income of about £750 a month.
“I think the bills are going to get sky high and people will struggle to live,” he warns.
“People won’t be able to afford to live because when they are on benefits and paying their gas and electric, if it goes up they just won’t be able to afford it, people are going to be worse off.
“I’m concerned, not only for myself but for other people as well.
“The Government need to help people, the people who have got less money should end up getting more money or they should put their gas and electric down.
“People are on low benefits anyway.”
Catherine McKinney, 48, was an air stewardess for nine-and-a-half years and has also worked in call centres and as a hotel receptionist.
She fell on hard times when her mental health deteriorated and she eventually ended up homeless, though she now has a roof over head.
Catherine, who “desperately” hopes to find a job once her health improves, tells how much she missed the temporary £20-a-week Universal Credit rise, which was announced at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but axed last October.
Scrapping the top-up means she “literally can’t afford food”, she says.
“That made a big difference because that would be my shopping for the week, that extra £20 - the standard milk, bread, eggs,” says Catherine.
“Inflation is very worrying. I don’t want to be on the street, I want to pay my bills and not get in debt.”
Steady stream of needy folk
It's 8.55am on a bright but chilly Monday and a handful of single men are gathered outside Queens Road Baptist Church, waiting for the foodbank to open.
Five minutes later, volunteers begin to welcome the hungry.
The Mirror is spending the morning at the Trussell Trust centre, watching the steady stream of needy folk asking for help.
Some smile as the kind staff offer them a cup of tea or coffee.
Others are quiet, subdued and almost haunted - embarrassed their personal plights have brought them here.
In total, 29 people come through the doors during the three-hour session, collecting food for 42 people including themselves.
The eyes of one man, who looks to be in his 50s, light up as he receives a box of 500g Tesco own-brand cornflakes.
Being handed this cereal has quite simply made his day.
Stocks are kept out the back: blue and green plastic crates crammed with tins of Branston baked beans, Heinz tomato soup, Four Season sliced carrots, Princes corned beef, Grower’s Harvest new potatoes and Aldi basmati rice.
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All foodbanks offer tins and packs of non-perishables such as pasta and rice.
But here at Queens Road Baptist Church, loaves of Kingsmill 50/50 bread, packs of frozen lamb, halal chicken and venison steaks, and Toad-in-the-Hole and Bangers & Mash ready meals chill in a chest freezer, waiting to be distributed.
There is fresh food too, with visitors offered bagged-up bread rolls, croissants, pain-au-chocolat, bananas and clementines.
Many people who bravely walk through the doors of their local foodbank also need help with caring for their personal hygiene.
Cans of Gillette shaving foam, bottles of supermarket own-brand shower gel and tubes of toothpaste line the shelves.
Heartbreakingly, one shelf is home to a dozen cuddly toys - for the families who are so poor they can’t afford to give their kids a bear to hug.
Voice of the Mirror
"Tomorrow Rishi Sunak has the chance to show he understands how tough life is for so many families in Britain.
Households across the country are struggling with rising food and fuel bills, sky-high petrol prices and a squeeze on incomes caused by runaway inflation.
What the Chancellor announces today will determine whether a parent can afford to feed their children or a pensioner is able to heat their home.
It will mean the difference between a hot meal or another trip to the food bank. The difference between dignity in old age or having to huddle under blankets to keep warm.
A fair-minded Chancellor would do the right thing by using the money in the Treasury coffers to support those with the least.
He would raise pensions and benefits in line with inflation to prevent more people being dragged into poverty.
He would scrap the planned National Insurance increase and replace it with a fairer system of taxation.
And he would impose a windfall tax on the oil and gas giants to pay for a VAT cut on fuel that would help millions of families.
This is the time for compassionate action. Anything less would be a cold-hearted betrayal."
