New data has found that Manchester, Oldham and Stockport are the top three areas in the North West sending out the most number of food parcels to the vulnerable.
The data from Trussell Trust, one of the largest food bank charities in the UK, also found that the North West is the second highest area in the UK for the number of food parcels given out, trailing slightly behind London.
Within the North West, Manchester sits top of the table with a total of 17,863 food parcels given out between April and September 2023.
In a comparison of food parcels produced in April-September from 2018 to 2023, Central Manchester foodbank’s production raised by 270.49%, and Oldham exceeded this showing a 355.57% increase in the 5 year period.
This data becomes more worrying when considering the increase in the number of children being affected by food poverty and needing to rely on food parcels.
This is evident as the number of food parcels being given to children between the months April to September has increased by 157.75% between 2019 and 2023.
Emma Revie, Chief Executive at the Trussell Trust said: “These statistics are extremely alarming. An increasing number of children are growing up in families facing hunger, forced to turn to food banks to survive.
“A generation is growing up believing that it’s normal to see a food bank in every community. This is not right.”
Aside from Trussell Trust, charities such as the UK Educational and Faith Foundation have attempted to help these areas, establishing the Oldham food aid hub in 2010 in order to provide the homeless with hot food and food parcels.
Nasim Ashraf, from UKEFF, said: “In winter, we’ve got people who are dying of hunger.
“They’re old and vulnerable. And they’re just left to rot and die, if I can be as crude as that.”
Ashraf is pleading to the government to “stop bombing other countries”, stating: “We put our foreign interests before our local interests. And that’s wrong on every single level.
“We’ve gotten billions to spend on military aid and artillery abroad. But we haven’t got any money to feed [people here], to keep them warm.”
In 2018, the service was referenced in the House of Lords as “Oldham’s fourth emergency service”, a statement that has only become more relevant after the effects of Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis.
Since 2019, the Hub has had to extend its opening hours from three hours once a week to now, providing food four days a week.
In May 2022, Manchester Evening News reported that “the government’s levelling up agenda is failing Greater Manchester”, due to data from Greater Manchester Poverty Action’s ‘poverty monitor’, stating that one in four children in the region are living in poverty.
Meanwhile, it’s small heroes like Oldham Food Aid Hub, Manchester Central Food Bank and Chelwood Food Bank Plus in Stockport that are – to quote Ashraf – “just putting some fires out”.
Feature image: UKEFF
