Two-thirds of households in the deepest food insecurity never used a food bank
Trussell's parcel count — the headline figure on UK hardship — fell 12% in 2025. A separate government household survey shows why parcel counts and the true scale of food insecurity tell different stories.
Noodle News data desk · reading time ~4 min
2.64m
Trussell food parcels distributed UK-wide, 2025
9%
UK households in low or very low food security, 2024/25
33%
Of very-low-food-security households that used a food bank, past 12 months
What the parcel count shows
The headline figure is falling
Every spring, Trussell's parcel count sets the news agenda on hardship. In 2025 — the first year Trussell reported by calendar year rather than financial year2 — its food banks distributed 2.64 million emergency parcels across the UK, down 12% on 2024 and 18% below the 2023 peak.2 Trussell attributes the fall mainly to easing food inflation and fewer redundancies, alongside growth in social supermarkets that may have displaced some food bank visits.3
Source: Trussell, End of year stats.2 Figures are parcels supplied, not people helped — a household referred twice counts twice. From 2025, Trussell reports by calendar year (Jan–Dec); earlier years were reported by financial year (Apr–Mar), so the final data point is not perfectly like-for-like with the rest of the series.
Key finding. Parcel counts are a measure of food banks' throughput — referrals and repeat visits — not a headcount of people in need. That distinction is the whole story below.
What the household survey shows
The denominator most coverage leaves out
Since 2019/20 the government's own Family Resources Survey (FRS) has asked a representative sample of UK households directly about their food security, and since 2021/22 it has asked whether they used a food bank.1 In 2024/25, 91% of UK households reported high or marginal food security; 9% — roughly 2.5 million households — reported low or very low food security, the DWP's two categories of food insecurity.1 That rate has moved only slightly since the question was first asked, from 8% of households in 2019/20 to 9% in 2024/25.1
The same survey shows most food-insecure households never reach a food bank. Even among households in very low food security — the most severe category, where members go without meals for lack of money — only 33% had used a food bank in the previous 12 months, and just 14% in the previous 30 days.1 Two in three of the households in the deepest food insecurity the survey can identify did not use a food bank at all in the past year.
Exhibit 02
Households using a food bank in the last 30 days, by food security status
Source: DWP, Family Resources Survey, FYE 2025, Table 9.13, via House of Commons Library.1,4 UK households, 2024/25. "High" food security rounds to 0% (DWP describes this as "fewer than 1%").
Key finding. Food bank use rises sharply with food insecurity, as expected — but even at its most severe, most food-insecure households are not visible in food bank data at all.
What we don't know
Trussell's network is the largest in the UK but not the only one: the Independent Food Aid Network estimates at least 1,172 independent food banks operate outside it, so total food bank use is higher than Trussell's figures alone show.3 Why food-insecure households don't seek food bank help — stigma, not knowing a bank exists, referral barriers, or coping through other means — is not something the FRS asks about, so this piece cannot say which explanation dominates. And the FRS food security question covers the 30 days before interview, a different and narrower window than the food bank questions, so the two are not perfectly aligned in time even within the same survey.1
By the numbers, 2024/25
91%
UK households with high or marginal food security
1.4%
Of all UK households used a food bank in the last 30 days
67%
Of very-low-security households did not use a food bank, past 12 months
1,556
Trussell food bank locations across the UK, 2025
Caveat. A falling parcel count is consistent with either less need or the same need being met differently — through independent food banks, social supermarkets, or going without. The FRS prevalence rate, which has barely moved, is the better guide to underlying need; the parcel count is the better guide to pressure on the Trussell network specifically. Neither, alone, is "the" food bank statistic.
Go deeper
Read more
Held out of this short piece to keep the spine clear:
Independent food banks. IFAN-affiliated banks outside the Trussell network are not counted in the parcel figures above, and April 2025 IFAN survey data suggested a different, less improved picture on the ground than Trussell's national figures.3
Who is most affected. The FRS shows food insecurity is far higher in social-rented, benefit-receiving, and disabled-adult households than the 9% national average — a regional and demographic breakdown that didn't fit this length.1
Method. Two independent measures are set side by side, not blended. (1) Trussell's parcel count is administrative data from its own referral network: a count of parcels issued, not people, so repeat visits inflate the total relative to a headcount. From the 2025 release Trussell reports by calendar year; 2015–2024 figures in Exhibit 01 were originally reported by financial year and restated to calendar year by Trussell/the House of Commons Library, so the series should be read as indicative of trend rather than exact year-on-year change at the boundary. (2) The FRS food security and food-bank-use questions are self-reported by a nationally representative household sample (achieved sample 16,288 households in FYE 2025), covering the 30 days (food security, food bank 30-day question) or 12 months (food bank annual question) before interview; percentages are as published by DWP and are not re-derived. No projection or modelled scenario appears anywhere in this piece; the 67% and 91% figures are simple complements (100% minus the published rate) recomputed and checked in code, not independent survey estimates.
Sources. Numbered, highest tier first; each inline citation points here.
T1Department for Work and Pensions, Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025, gov.uk, published 26 March 2026, Household Food Security chapter and Table 9.13. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
T3Trussell, End of year food bank stats, trussell.org.uk, UK factsheet for 2025, published March 2026. Interested-party administrative data; badged and cross-checked against T1/T2 sources above, not used as a standalone measure of need. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
T2House of Commons Library, Food banks in the UK, Research Briefing CBP-8585, by Khadijah Zaidi, 17 June 2026. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
T2House of Commons Library, Food poverty: Households, food banks and free school meals, Research Briefing CBP-9209, by Brigid Francis-Devine, Xameerah Malik and Niamh Foley, 2 July 2025. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
Corrections. None. Material corrections will be logged here with date.
Figures to 21 Jul 2026.Noodle News · v1.0 · food-bank-parcels-vs-need.