Emergency food supplies given to nearly 5,000 people in crisis across Wrexham

Nearly 5,000 people across Wrexham accessed a food bank for emergency supplies in the past year.

The data, which has been released by the Trussell Trust, shows that between April 2018 and March 2019 over 113,000 three-day emergency food supplies were given to people in crisis in Wales.

Almost 41,000 of these went to children – an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year.

Wrexham also saw an increase in the number of people accessing emergency food supplies, with 4,984 people in crisis locally over the past 12 months.

The Trussell Trust say that 3,349 of these were adults and 1,635 were children.

This is up on the 2,909 emergency food supplies being issued to adults and 1,271 to children during the same period last year.

The charity is now calling for an end to Universal Credit five week wait, stating that the main reasons for referral to its food banks are:

– Benefits consistently not covering the cost of living: 31.94%
– Delays in payment: 22.53%
– Changes to benefits being paid: 17.98%

Susan Lloyd-Selby, Wales Operations Manager for the Trussell Trust, explains: “We are seeing record numbers of people in Wales walking through the doors of food banks because they simply cannot afford food. This isn’t right.

“No one should be left hungry or destitute and we owe it to each other to make sure sufficient financial support is in place when we need it most.

“Our benefits system should anchor us all from being swept into poverty with Universal Credit being part of the solution. But currently the five week wait is leaving many without enough money to cover the basics.

“As a priority, we’re urging the government to end the wait for Universal Credit to ease the pressure on thousands of households.

“No charity can replace the dignity of having financial security. That’s why in the long-term, we’re calling for benefit payments to reflect the true cost of living and work is secure, paying the real Living Wage, to help ensure we are all anchored from poverty.”

You can find out more about the Wrexham Food Bank and the work it carries out across Wrexham / how you can get involved here, or via its Facebook page here.