A new £1.5million strategic partnership has been formed to help end the need for food banks.

In partnership with the Trussell Trust, the Cadent Foundation are supporting food banks in the North West to deliver increased specialist advice to people facing poverty.

Between April 2020 and April 2021, Trussell Trust food banks in the North West delivered 313,015 parcels as they saw a 23 per cent rise in need for their services on the previous year. 

While people referred to food banks can be dealing with a vast variety of issues, the fundamental problem common to all is simple: a lack of money to buy essentials, like food, clothes, heating, and safe accommodation.

Supporting the Trussell Trust’s mission to end the need for food banks, the Cadent Foundation has formed a new three-year, £1.5m strategic partnership with the charity, aimed at increasing low incomes through providing access to financial advice.

The funding provides local grants to food banks via the Trussell Trusts Together for Change grants programme, as well as supporting the national Help through Hardship helpline, which was developed in 2020 in collaboration with Citizens Advice.

Head of financial inclusion at the Trussell Trust, Neal Southwick, said: “A huge number of people are experiencing financial crisis, unable to access the right support, and often ill equipped to navigate complex issues and systems.

"Cadent’s support is crucial, enabling us to seize the opportunity to help develop both local and national services that support a range of complex circumstances.

"Everyone’s experience of poverty is different, and it’s vital that people receive tailored, dignified support.

"New income maximisation and debt advice services will offer practical support to navigate our social security system as well as looking at managing debt, with the hope that through increasing income, people won’t need to use a foodbank again in the future.

"In partnership with our food banks, we are increasing support at the point of crisis as well as working to push support upstream, to prevent people facing the levels of poverty that we have seen rise over the past five years.”

With poverty surging in the UK, it has never been more important to look at how people can be better protected from falling into extreme poverty, particularly, how the private, public and third sectors can collaborate to intervene earlier, and make specialist support more accessible to everyone.

Director of the Cadent Foundation, Julia Dwyer, said: “We’ve seen unprecedented numbers of people needing help from food banks for the first time as the impact of coronavirus has hit people’s incomes.

"Ultimately no one should ever need to use a food bank.

"By making sure that people struggling to afford food are getting as much income as possible, it will not only help people at the point of crisis but will also make it less likely that someone will need a food bank in the future.”