Working with Trussell

East Lothian Foodbank is part of Trussell’s nationwide community of foodbanks.

It’s community of more than 1,400 foodbank centres in the UK provide a minimum of three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and essentials to people who have been referred, as well as support and advice to help people maximise their incomes and lift themselves out of poverty.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, more than 3.1 million emergency food parcels were distributed by Trussell’s community of foodbanks – the most parcels ever distributed in a year and nearly double the number compared to five years ago. Of these, 1.1 million emergency food parcels were provided for children. The number of people that used a foodbank for the first time was 655,000. In Scotland, emergency food and essentials were distributed to 259,744 people.

Trussell recognises that ending hunger is about more than food. It supports and encourages its community of foodbanks to provide compassionate, practical support to people in crisis to tackle the root causes that lock people into poverty and build people’s resilience so they are less likely to need a foodbank in the future.

Ending the need for foodbanks

We know it takes more than food to end hunger. We know our goal to end the need for foodbanks is ambitious, but by working together for change, we believe it is achievable.

That’s why we’re joining Trussell in calling on the UK government to ensure Universal Credit covers essential costs such as food, travel and household bills.