New annual figures show 240,000 emergency provisions provided across the country.
New data from the Trussell trust shows that almost 240,000 emergency food parcels were provided by food banks in its community to people facing hunger in the past year across Scotland – equivalent to one parcel every two minutes.
Alarmingly, more than 140,000 of these were for families with at least one child.
The charity says this should be a “wake-up call” for the Scottish and UK governments to strengthen the social security system and re-think cuts to welfare that risk forcing more people to food banks.
The 239,503 emergency food parcels provided to people facing hardship across Scotland between April 2024 and March 2025 is double (+101%) the number of parcels provided a decade ago.
The number of parcels provided to children has more than doubled (+111%) compared with a decade ago.
Many food banks in the Trussell community are now reporting severe levels of hardship that are “heartbreaking”, with some parents forced to ration their own food to ensure they can feed their children, as well as people in such desperate situations that they open food parcels and eat before leaving the food bank.
The charity reported a dip (-10%) in the total number of emergency food parcels provided across Scotland compared with the previous year, but the need for emergency food is still persistently high.
Lori Hughes, project manager at Perth and Kinross Foodbank, said: "Our food bank has distributed 4,089 emergency food parcels this year to individuals, couples and families across Perth and Kinross – that's over 100 more than the previous year. We are seeing far too many people experiencing hunger and hardship in our local communities, forced to turn to us to help them through difficult days.
“People are crumbling under the strain of rising costs of essentials, benefit delays, debt, insecure housing, and the ongoing impacts of physical and mental health conditions. Families, disabled people, people in work, single parents, no-one is immune. Donation levels are not keeping up with the level of need and that in turn places pressure on us as an organisation. It's not right that anyone in Scotland should be left with no other avenue than to turn to emergency food aid and the support of charities to feed their families.
“Food banks are a lifeline, but they shouldn’t need to exist in the first place. While we campaign for change to prevent people from needing to use a service like ours, we will continue to support people who need us. If you can, we would encourage you to play your part either by donating food or funds to your local food bank to ensure everyone is heard and no-one goes hungry. Hunger and hardship can only be defeated by coming together, and nobody in our communities should be struggling to put food on the table.”
With MPs soon to vote on the UK government’s proposals to cut essential support for sick and disabled people, Trussell is warning that these changes could force even more people to turn to food banks to get by.
Disabled people are already overrepresented at food banks, with three in four of people referred to a food bank in the Trussell community saying they or a member of their household are disabled, placing them at the highest risk of hunger and hardship.
The charity is urging the government to re-think these proposed cuts and to urgently update Universal Credit to ensure that everyone has enough money to be able to afford the essentials in life.
This means, for starters, bringing forward the planned increase to the basic rate of Universal Credit from April 2029 to April 2026, halving the proposed cuts to welfare support and ending the two-child limit.
Without urgent and positive action, the charity says there is a real risk the UK government will oversee an increase in hunger and hardship across Scotland and more families will be forced to turn to food banks to survive.
While the UK government needs to take action now to fulfil its manifesto promise to reduce the need for emergency food, the Scottish Government also has significant powers and must use them to turn the tide on food bank use in Scotland.
Trussell says the Scottish Government should reaffirm support for an Essentials Guarantee, to ensure that Universal Credit always covers the cost of food and other essentials.
They also said ministers must increase the level of the Scottish Child Payment to £40 a week, significantly increase funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund, invest Barnett consequentials from the extension of the Household Support Fund into local crisis support, and commit to updating its action plan to end the need for food banks, to align with the timescales for the delivery of its 2030 child poverty reduction targets
Cara Hilton, policy manager in Scotland at Trussell, said: “Thousands of children, families, disabled people, working people, and older people from across Scotland needed to access food banks for emergency food in the past year. A whole generation of Scots have now grown up in a country where sustained high levels of food bank need feels like the norm and this should be a massive wake-up call to both the Scottish and UK governments and a stark reminder of their responsibilities to the people of this country.
“The recent Programme for Government was a missed opportunity to take the bold action and change we need to see in Scotland if we are to turn the tide on hunger and hardship. The First Minister has rightly put eradicating child poverty at the heart of his government’s programme, but this ambition and commitment needs to be matched with action and at scale.
“At UK level, the Westminster Government will fail to improve living standards unless they row back on their harmful policy choices on disability benefits otherwise, they risk leaving a legacy of rising food bank need. Addressing hunger and hardship for both governments must be a priority.”
