In response to figures from the Trussell Trust, out last week, which show that the number of foodbank users in the UK has topped 1 million, 117,689 of those in Scotland, Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam Scotland, said:
“It’s extremely worrying to see yet another rise in the number of people being forced to visit foodbanks in Scotland, and throughout the UK.
“These figures reveal that there has been a two-thirds increase in the number of people accessing emergency food from a Trussell Trust foodbank in Scotland. However, we know there are many more out there who are using independent ones, not to mention the people who don’t go to foodbanks and are literally going without enough food.
“Whoever forms the next UK government can’t ignore the fact that people in the seventh richest country in the world are going hungry every day.
“As a cross-party group of parliamentarians* at Westminster said recently, this has to be a top priority addressed urgently by whoever wins the election.”
*The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hunger and Food Poverty, which took place in December 2014: https://foodpovertyinquiry.org