Our work in Scotland

The distinctive context in Scotland provides a special opportunity to realise our vision to end the need for food banks.

Far too many people are experiencing food insecurity in Scotland

There are 43 food banks in the Trussell community in Scotland, distributing parcels at over 144 venues, and in 26 local authorities.

Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, these food banks distributed 240,000 emergency food parcels, including more than 140,000 parcels for families with children. While this is a slight drop compared to the previous year, the need for emergency food is still persistently high and food banks in the Trussell community in Scotland are providing double (+101%) the number of parcels compared to a decade ago.

Our latest Hunger in Scotland research has revealed that in 2024, one million people across Scotland, including 210,000 children, lived in food insecure households and despite falling inflation levels, there has been no real progress in reducing the use of food banks. 

Our strategy in Scotland

People need food banks when they don’t have enough income for the essentials. In Scotland, we’ve developed a new strategy that includes offering strategic grants to food banks to support their communities and identifying millions in income for people facing financial hardship.

We’ve trialled new approaches that put people with lived experience of hunger and poverty centre stage and secured a commitment from the Scottish Government in May 2021 to develop an action plan to end the need for food banks. This new plan was published in summer 2023. There is hope, and an emerging route to a Scotland without the need for food banks. We must not stop until we get there.