Tyrone foodbank feeds over 1,000 more people in 2023

A FOODBANK based in Tyrone fed over 1,000 more people in 2023 compared to the previous 12 months, with local families continuing to struggle during the ‘cost-of-living’ crisis.

The Dungannon Foodbank, which is run in collaboration between the Vineyard Church and the Trussell Trust charity, has revealed that 7,552 people had used its services during 2023, over 1,000 more people than needed help during 2022.

A spokesperson for the organisation said the volunteers ‘dreamed of a day’ when foodbanks weren’t needed, but many people across Tyrone and the rest of the North were becoming increasingly reliant on them as costs continue to rise.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA, Colm Gildernew, said he believed it was ‘unacceptable’ so many people relied on foodbanks.

The Sinn Fein MLA said, “I would like to commend Dungannon Foodbank for the work they do to help those struggling as a result of savage Tory cuts to vital public and community services and denying workers fair pay rises.”

Calling for the DUP to end its Stormont boycott, Mr Gildernew added, “We need local ministers around the Executive table working together to negotiate new financial arrangements for the North and to protect workers and families from this cruel agenda of austerity.”

Foodbanks in the Trussell Trust network distributed 81,084 emergency food parcels across the North between April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, including 35,334 parcels for children.

This is the most parcels that the network has ever distributed in a financial year and represents a 29 per-cent increase from the same period in 2021/22.

According to the charity, the need seen in this 12-month period was even greater than that seen by the network in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emma Revie, Trussell Trust chief executive, said, “These statistics are extremely alarming. An increasing number of children are growing up in families facing hunger, forced to turn to foodbanks to survive. A generation is growing up believing that it’s normal to see a foodbank in every community. This is not right.”

Across the UK as a whole, the Trussell Trust said it provided 1.5 million emergency food parcels to people between April and September 2023.