By Alyssa Drysdale

The number of British residents left destitute and relying heavily on food banks has increased to 94%, a recent study conducted by The State of Hunger, a charity organisation aiming to support those in poverty has shown.

One in five users have no form of income coming into their households.

Due to an increase of poverty rates in the UK, as well as a decrease in benefit support, food banks across the UK have been left struggling with the increase in demand for not only food essentials but also basic toiletries too.

Craig Crosthwaite, coordinator of the North Ayrshire food bank said: “We have had one week where we couldn’t meet requests because we ran out of stock. To me, the miracle is the community have been giving and they respond to our call for donations.

We can never be sure what the demand is going to be, we have just entered a new project where we are cooking prepared meals and issuing that to people as well as tins of food. That will be another hundred households, a week, that are being helped with that.”

Food banks often have an excess quantity of pasta and soups but are often lacking in other essentials such as tinned meats and sweet snacks.

It is advised to consider these when donating to your local food banks, especially during the colder winter months.