Amid austerity and benefits changes, a record number of food banks have been forced to ask for donations this summer after running out of certain goods, according to the Trussell Trust, Britain's biggest food bank network.
The Christian charity told the Guardian that 42 of its centres – about 10 per cent of its network – released an urgent appeal for items on social media, or through local media, in the past three months.
In July, an independent facility, Eastside food bank in Swansea, South Wales, ran out of supplies. Volunteers who run the food bank from Mount Zion Baptist church in Bonymaen subsequently made an appeal for stock, and the callout prompted a tenfold rise in donations.
And this week, West Somerset Food Cupboard, an independent food bank in south-west England, made an urgent appeal for baked beans, with the coordinator, Ann Gibbs, saying that a surge in demand had triggered the request.
In Nottingham meanwhile, low supplies were reported at Mount Zion food bank, in Radford, and it too has noted a surge of donations since its appeal.
The operations support manager at Trussell Trust, James Milton, explained that the increase this summer was down to a rise in year-on-year referrals.
'While none of the food banks in our network have run out of food, we know many of them are worried about stock levels of certain shortage items,' he told the Guardian.
'The only reason food banks were able to stop people going hungry was because local people had generously donated. Food banks rely on communities giving food.'
Rev Chris Lewis, chair of Eastside food bank, said that changes to the benefits system were also a contributory factor, with food banks facing more pressure than ever thanks to a 40 per cent rise in referrals in the year from May 2016.
Lewis said: 'People are being referred to us because of benefit sanctions and because of quite long delays in changes to benefits.'
This year the Trussell Trust said that the chaotic introduction of universal credit, the Government's flagship welfare overhaul, had increased food bank use.
The trust said that many claimants were unable to afford meals when their benefits were delayed.
Lewis also said that the lack of supplies this summer had highlighted the extent of hidden food poverty. He said: 'It's not going to go away... Austerity is causing a lot of suffering...I've seen a mother weep when we gave her a few bags of basic foo ... I also call on the government to address the growing problem. In the meantime, please keep supporting us.'
Lewis noted that many food banks around the country were also struggling, adding of his own facility: 'On the first Friday of the holidays we got to a critically low level, which would have wiped out our stock the following Friday if we got no more in ... we wouldn't have been able to give people enough ingredients to make a meal...We will be all right for a while now, but we are constantly trying to expand our support network, and we are doing things like getting collection boxes and getting messages into local schools.'
Milton said that food banks were an emergency service and the Trussell Trust was doing all it could to support those in need, but warned: 'We do not have the food stock or volunteer capacity to solve structural problems alone.'
He added: 'We are deeply concerned by the continued increase in food bank use. The impact of policies like universal credit raises important questions ... about the extent to which frontline volunteer-run groups should have to step in to help in the absence of other practical help.'
The Trussell Trust, which is founded on Christian principles, runs a network of over 400 food banks, giving emergency food and support to people in crisis across the UK, where thirteen million people live below the poverty line.
In the last year the charity gave 1,182,954 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis.
