Surge in food bank use 'fuelled by loneliness as well as poverty' says report

Polling found people who turn to food banks are much lonelier than the public at large - and that one in five of them say they have no family or friends to support them

A surge in millions of people using food banks has been fuelled by loneliness as well as poverty, a new report has found.

Polling found people who turn to food banks are much lonelier than the public at large - and that one in five of them say they have no family or friends to support them.

The report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found food bank use has hit a record high.

Some 2.3 million people lived in a household in 2022/23 that has used a food bank in the last 12 months – up by 200,000 on the year before.

Polling conducted by Whitestone Insight for the CSJ indicates that three in five people who have used a food bank in the last year expect to do so again this Christmas.

It highlights a worrying link between loneliness and those using food banks. People who use food banks are significantly lonelier than the general population.

Just one in four people who use food banks (26%) say they never feel lonely, compared to two in five adults across the general population (40%).

Nearly a third of food bank users (31%) say that most people use food banks because they are isolated.

One in five food bank users say they have no family or friends to support them, over three times the national average of roughly six per cent.

CSJ Senior Researcher Josh Nicholson said: “We need to look far more closely at the root causes of why food bank use is increasing. It’s not all about income and the welfare system can’t provide all the solutions. During the first year of the pandemic, real incomes for the poorest 20 per cent of the population went up – but so did recourse to food banks.

“We are in danger of institutionalising emergency food aid in the UK. The Government’s manifesto commitment to end mass dependence means they must tackle the root causes of food banks. One of these is loneliness and social isolation.”

“In their traditional format, focused solely on the distribution of free food, food banks can only address the symptoms of failing social and economic life.”