The UK's largest food bank charity says more people are relying on free food parcels than ever before to survive. The Trussell Trust says changes to the UK's welfare system is driving people deeper into debt and poverty.
A three-year study by the organization found 94 percent of food bank users are destitute, that means they can't afford to eat regularly. The Trust also says three out of four households are suffering from ill health or disability. And one in ten food bank recipients have a learning disability.
Andrea Bell started a UK charity in the north-east city of Sunderland a few months ago. But she says there's been so much demand for help, as well as people donating food, that she's had to open a warehouse. Bell says insecure work, such as contracts with no guaranteed hours, is one factor forcing people into poverty.
Demand for food banks is increasing in the UK.
"A lot of contracts are zero hours, you never know where you are. People are relying on a certain amount of wages and then next week it's not there," Bell explains.
Every evening Andrea Bell and her volunteers hand out warm meals to around 100 people out of a small kitchen in Sunderland. She is part of a wider inititive that has grown significantly in recent times. 10 years ago the Trussell Trust ran 57 food banks, it now has 424.
Assistant Pastor at the Bethany Church, Daniel Alcock, says he sees parents and children every week who don't know how they will afford to put food on the table.
Volunteers hand out warm meals to around 100 people out of a small kitchen in Sunderland.
"I'm seeing more and more children walk through the food bank door particularly over the school period when schools can't or don't give out hot meals during the day. Parents are feeling the crunch," Alcock says.
Last year the British government introduced a new welfare payment system called Universal Credit. Under it people have to wait up to five weeks before they receive any money from the government.
Daniel Alcock says many people can't survive for 35 days without government assistance and that food banks have become a "band-aid" but they don't solve the problem.
"We supply food but where is the gas and electricity coming from? If I give someone a bag of pasta you can't eat it raw," Alcock points out.
In many parts of the UK food banks and community kitchens have become a way of life. The people that run them believe that without this volunteer-led assistance many people would have nothing to eat at all.