Section 6: Food Poverty

Foodbanks

Table 6.1

Food Aid Stats for Leeds 2022/23 2021/22 2020/21 2019/20 2018/19 2017/18 2016/17
The number of times people accessed foodbank / parcels by referral 59,117 41,703 61,137 41,606 33,645 27,902 26,831
Number of meals/sandwich batches given out from Drop ins and Street Outreach 92,353 77,125 100,707 108,345 108,389 81,024 60,474
Number of food parcels given out informally 67,616 65,829 153,335 15,968 15,613 13,715 15,681
Source: Leeds Food Aid Network (FAN), June 2023

Leeds FAN helps bring different people, initiatives and institutions together who are involved in tackling food poverty in Leeds. This includes foodbanks, drop ins / soup kitchens, Street Outreaches, specialised services providing food for Asylum seekers / Refugees, informal parish pantries and certain forms of Social Enterprise run on a community café/pay as you feel models.

· 59,117 people have accessed a foodbank by referral in 2022/23. This is a 42% increase on the support level required during  2021/22.

· 92,353 meals were given out through a drop in or through Street Outreach, up 20% on last year.

· 67,616 food parcels were given out informally without the need for referral, this is up 3% on last year.

· New insights in 2022/23 also revealed that 30,597 allocations were accessed from Food Pantries, and Fuel Banks were used 13,375 times.