Walk down any high street in Britain and you’re likely to find sparse supermarket shelves, anxious faces, and foodbank collection boxes standing as silent witnesses to a deeper crisis. For too many, poverty is no longer a temporary setback, it’s a chronic condition that undermines their health, wellbeing, and hope.

Through Angels Connect, we see this every day across the UK: people caught in the grinding cycle of low wages, insecure incomes, and rising costs, forced to rely on emergency food just to survive. Behind the statistics, there are heartbreakingly human stories.

Financial insecurity is a primary driver of this crisis. Even before the cost-of-living surge, millions of households were already unable to meet their basic needs. Between April and September 2024, Trussell distributed over 1.4 million emergency food parcels, a 69% increase compared to five years earlier . By March 2025, that figure had swelled to nearly 2.9 million, roughly one parcel handed out every 11 seconds across their network . This constant rise shows that foodbanks are no longer just a safety net, they’re a structural necessity for too many.

Data from the DWP further confirms this worrying trend. In 2022–23, approximately 7.2 million people – around 11% of the UK population – experienced food poverty, including 17% of children . Meanwhile, roughly 2.3 million people lived in households that used a foodbank over the same period, 3% of the population, rising as high as 14% for those in severe food insecurity . These aren’t rare emergencies; they’re distressingly common.

Many who engage with Money Angels talk of pay packets that disappear almost as soon as they land: first on rent, then utilities, and finally on food, if anything is left. Numerous report that Universal Credit delays and benefit sanctions have tipped them into crisis: “income not covering essential costs” is the top reason for referrals to Trussell  foodbanks . The result isn’t just hunger; it’s stress, anxiety, and ill-health. Research shows the toll is real: a survey in Northern England found half of those with severe mental illness had not been able to afford food, and two-thirds said the cost-of-living squeezed their mental wellbeing .

Hunger is no longer hidden, it’s a visible public health emergency. In January 2024, 15% of households – 8 million adults and 3 million children – reported going hungry due to lack of funds. The NHS has already recorded the consequences: rising admissions for nutritional deficiency, rickets, and other preventable health conditions . Families report cutting back on fruit and vegetables by up to 60%, a startling plunge that portends long-term physical health damage . With inflation up 24–26% in two years, the gap between what families earn and what they need for a healthy diet is yawning ever wider.

For children especially, this crisis is both immediate and far-reaching. One in five Year 6 pupils is classified as obese, and childhood obesity continues its upward march, particularly in deprived neighbourhoods where healthy food is scarce, and cheap junk is everywhere . Free school meals, vital for many families, are too often the only nutritious meal a child gets. Yet eligibility rules still leave 900,000 children in poverty without access . Through our policy recommendations and desire to influence change, Angels Connect supports parental advocacy for universal eligibility, recognising that healthy childhood meals are vital to both equity and wellbeing.

Foodbank use also highlights entrenched inequalities. Disabled individuals, people in insecure work, single parents, and those in precarious or part-time employment are disproportionately affected. For households earning less than £200–£400 weekly, up to 8% reported using a food bank annually, far higher than the general population average . Additionally, 69% of foodbank referrals through Trussell involved someone with a disability, many relying on benefits that are insufficient to cover basic living costs .

These realities demand more than sympathy, they demand systemic change. Our approach combines immediate support with advocacy, training, and community building. But without political will to reform welfare, raise minimum incomes, smooth Universal Credit delays, we are running uphill in gale-force winds.

Women, children, older people, and disabled individuals are being forced into foodbanks not because of laziness, but because the system is failing them. Austerity has become institutionalised hunger. Healthcare professionals at every level, from GPs to nutritionists, are sounding alarms: malnutrition isn’t a fringe concern, it’s widespread and debilitating .

In response, Angels Connect continues to push for:

• Income security for all, including universal free school meals and reforms to benefits;
• Tackling root causes like insecure employment and housing instability;
• Embedding food justice in NHS and public health planning, with screening for food insecurity at every point of care;
• Strengthening the social safety net, not dismantling it.

We believe in a UK where no family has to choose between a cooked meal and a warm home. Where a child’s health isn’t determined by their postcode. Where poverty isn’t a lifelong sentence, and community can heal. 

Get in touch to join our Network of people across the UK committed to connecting people to life-changing advice, and advocating for fairer support structures and symptoms for those most in need.