It is a dark cloud hanging over our dynamic and wealth-creating economy that people, many people, continue to face food insecurity. They lack ready access to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life, creating a toxic combination of hunger and uncertainty.
That’s a definition, but what does it mean for those affected? For one desperate mum it meant using water, sugar and pieces of toilet paper to stave off the hunger pains as she tried to work out how to feed her child. So yes, it can be bad, really bad.
According to the Trussell Trust network, 442,430 food packages were handed out last year to people across London who were in dire need of them. That is more than double the number distributed in 2019, although a slight decrease from 2024. Those figures give just a rough guide to the overall level of demand for emergency food relief, as there are other organisations doing similar work.
Accessing a Trussell Trust food bank usually requires a referral from, say, a GP, a school, another charity or a local authority. Once a voucher or electronic equivalent is issued, the recipient can approach a local food bank for help. A typical parcel received will contain around three days’ worth of nutritionally balanced food, tailored to household needs. Basic toiletries may also be included, though that will depend on what has been donated.
The trust has long recognised that it is offering short-term emergency help only and that tackling the things that lead people to seek help requires sustained, multi-agency engagement. Providing that is a big ask of an organisation whose volunteers already wake up worrying about how they will feed the many people who will come through the food bank door later that morning. But a number of initiatives across London now provide wraparound support to help people address what has led them into crisis and move beyond needing food banks.
Denise Bentley, chief executive of First Love Foundation, is perhaps the best-known advocate of shifting anti-poverty policy from emergency food supply to integrated advice, local support and welfare reform.
During the 2010s, she developed a new food bank model in Tower Hamlets. A case worker was appointed to each referred person to try to address why they and their household needed an emergency food package in the first place. This deeper engagement involved help with budgeting, debt restructuring, housing disputes and domestic violence situations.
This approach is now adopted by the borough as a whole. Emergency food support is still available in the borough, but today its preferred model, with backing from the council, is the Food Store Network. Residents pay a small weekly fee to join the programme and receive a basket of fresh and other foodstuffs. But they must also engage with on-site advisors. In this way, underlying problems are addressed and not left to fester and get worse.
In the past year, First Love Foundation has provided intensive support to 786 individuals from 281 households. Of these, 488 were adults and 298 were children. The main drivers of households reaching crisis point were benefit errors, the benefit cap, poor mental health, long-term sickness, debt and unaffordable housing costs. Financial hardship continues to be a major concern, with half of such cases involving rent arrears.
Cases are often complex, and on average need around 12 weeks of dedicated work time to resolve, though one particularly challenging situation featuring ill-health and disability took 10 months to work through. The foundation calculates that it has been able to recoup nearly £700,000 for those who missed out on benefits to which they were entitled, or were underpaid. Survey results found clients to have enjoyed a boost in resilience, understanding and confidence from having First Love on their side.
Another organisation re-thinking its anti-poverty strategy is Islington Giving, which forms part of a growing pan-London movement. Its role is to pool resources, bring in donations, connect with a wide range of philanthropic and other charitable organisations, create partnerships and do the research and strategic thinking required to make giving effective. Their aim is to put power back into the community by enabling local people to make decisions over grant funding flows.
Working with funders Google.org at the height of the cost-of-living crisis in 2023, Islington Giving began to map the food-giving network in the borough and made small scale emergency grants to over 30 organisations. The following year, a further round of funding for larger schemes included advice to help develop the project and its focus.
Following a food summit in 2024 with peers in Camden and national experts on food aid, Islington Giving used its final round of Google.org funds to provide resources for food projects transitioning to long-term sustainable models, such as social supermarkets and pantries. These are seen to be more effective ways of widening choice, improving nutritional value and increasing community engagement.
They also prioritised organisations that offer more than food, such as helping people with financial resilience, mental health and wellbeing. This included ARC Collective, The Peel, Manor Gardens, St Luke’s Community Centre and Mildmay Food Club.
In 2025, Islington Giving distributed more than £1 million to support over 13,000 people. Its success lies in a holistic focus on tackling the root causes of food insecurity. It takes a more open approach to risk than, say, Islington Council.
While there is always paperwork and due diligence, they aim to keep bureaucracy at bay. They concentrate on creating a relationship with frontline bodies, supporting them financially but also helping them to strengthen their offer, build capacity and think about their own financial sustainability. Crucially, they look to give agency to the people in need through their resident grant-making panels. By trusting the community in this way, the community returns that trust.
Although headline inflation has fallen, food prices remain around 30 per cent higher than in 2022, and because low-income households spend a much larger proportion of their money on food, they continue to experience a higher cost of living than the average household.
So, despite all the hard work, for Isy Miller, fundraising and communications manager for Islington Giving, there is sadly no evidence of the situation getting better. Furthermore, there are signs of less independent giving. At the same time, corporates seem overwhelmed by applications for funding, leading them to review their own giving strategies, causing delays with disbursements.
For Miller, while it is important that government does not come to rely on the charity sector to prop up the welfare state, it must recognise and support these new local ways of addressing food poverty. Such initiatives, rooted in a deep understanding of, and engagement with, the local community, are showing the way forward.
A similarly-styled project on the World’s End estate in Chelsea, the World’s End Beacon partnership (main photo) has also been inspired by the “beyond food banks” movement. Working through the Kensington and Chelsea Foundation, several philanthropic funders are channelling their resources into three frontline charities, each tackling a different pressure point in residents’ lives.
Drawing on resident needs assessments, Ubuntu Pledge will focus on digital skills and IT training, Nucleus Legal Advice Centre will help residents navigate the complex world of housing, tax and benefits, and Family Friends will work to build resilience and social connections among adults and young people alike.
Based in the estate’s youth centre are two dedicated case workers who work through the knotty issues dragging some residents down. They act as social advocates to find ways to navigate the complex administrative systems of local government, welfare, debt and medical services.
“We believe this partnership can have a meaningful, long-term benefit for residents on the World’s End Estate, says Victoria Steward-Todd, the foundation’s director. “When charities work together, they are often greater than the sum of their parts and the Beacon partnership’s aim is to offer a holistic, wraparound service that meets our residents’ needs.”
Crucially, the partnership is backed by a three-year funding commitment, so residents need not fear their support suddenly disappearing. Annual evaluations will track what works and what needs tweaking. There is potential for the model to be expanded to other communities if it proves successful. For the families on World’s End, the Beacon aims to offer not just emergency help, but the chance to build something more secure for the future.
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