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Foodbank forced to launch emergency appeal amid 'toughest time in living memory'

Hackney Foodbank is urgently appealing for help after experiencing a spike in demand and a fall in donations.

Jimmy Nsubuga
Updated ·3-min read
Workers and volunteers at Hackney Foodbank receive and organize food donations, 15th of December 2021, Hackney, East London, United Kingdom. The Hackney Food Bank is part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK. The food bank gives out three days emergency food supplies to families and individual who go hungry in the borrough. The food is all donated by individuals and the food donated is held in a small ware house where it is sorted and packed for distribution. More people than ever in Britain have turned to the food bank for help and in Hackney the need has gone up with 350% over the past two years. (photo by Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Hackney Foodbank is urgently appealing for help after it experienced a spike in demand. (Getty)

A foodbank has launched an emergency appeal for funding as it struggles to cope with demand amid the “toughest time in living memory”.

Hackney Foodbank is urgently appealing for help after experiencing a spike in demand and a fall in donations during the cost of living crisis.

The organisation, located in east London, said its costs for buying food were set to hit £250,000 this year.

It comes after UK inflation eased back further last month from to 10.5% in December from 10.7% but cost pressures remained intense for households as food prices hit another 45-year high of 16.8%.

Read more: Cost of living: Price of milk, cheese and butter jump by 30%

Workers and volunteers at Hackney Foodbank bank receive and organize food donations, 15th of December 2021, Hackney, East London, United Kingdom. The Hackney Food Bank is part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK. The food bank gives out three days emergency food supplies to families and individual who go hungry in the borrough. The food is all donated by individuals and the food donated is held in a small ware house where it is sorted and packed for distribution. More people than ever in Britain have turned to the food bank for help and in Hackney the need has gone up with 350% over the past two years. (photo by Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Workers and volunteers at Hackney Foodbank bank receive and organise food donations. (Getty)

Hackney Foodbank said it was appealing for £100,000 on GoFundMe so it could continue to provide food parcels and connect people to local organisations which can help them.

“An emergency appeal has been launched as Hackney Foodbank struggles to cope with a huge spike in demand and a fall in donations,” the organisation wrote.

“We hope to raise at least £100,000 to see us through what staff describe as: “the toughest time in living memory.”

Read more: Demands for energy discount for millions of disabled and elderly households

Hackney Foodbank said in 2017 it spent just £2,000 per year on food, in 2018 the figure was £7,000.

But in 2022 it spent around £125,000 and this year that figure is expected to reach £250,000.

It added: “£39 could help towards feeding a family of 4 for three days with a parcel of food and household items.”

Foodbanks in the Trussell Trust network distributed over 2.1 million food parcels in 2021-2022 for the first time outside of the first year of the pandemic.

It was an increase of 14% compared to the same period in the previous financial year and 832,000 of the parcels went to children.

A member the public looks through food items inside a foodbank in Hackney, north-east London on October 31, 2022. - There were dozens of people on Monday queuing outside the Foodbank in Hackney, an east London district, with a voucher allowing them to obtain a basket containing three days' worth of food. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
Hackney Foodbank distributes emergency food packages. (Getty)

It was revealed on Wednesday food and drink inflation had soared again to 16.8% in December, up from 16.4% in November, marking the highest level since September 1977.

Energy costs are also set to surge once again in the spring, when the government scales back its support package, capping gas and electricity bills at £3,000 a year, up from £2,500 currently.

The government has pledged to help halve inflation by the end of 2023.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “While any fall in inflation is welcome, we have a plan to go further and halve inflation this year, reduce debt and grow the economy – but it is vital that we take the difficult decisions needed and see the plan through.”

But Labour hit out at the government’s economic policies and said inflation was still five times the 2% target.