Food prices: Clever technology tackles shortages as prices soar

Food banks are having to buy groceries at high prices because donations fail to meet demand from families in need.

The Trussell Trust said 13% of food in emergency parcels was bought, compared with none before the pandemic.

Organisers say some shoppers are now splitting multipacks of cans because they cannot afford to donate it all.

But new software may be helping solve the dilemma, by telling people exactly which items are running low in their local food bank.

Paul McMurray, from North Shields, has created Donation Genie – a website that displays the items that are most needed at each specific food bank across the UK.

Visitors to the site simply enter a postcode or name of the area and it will show the addresses of the four nearest food banks and which items are top of their list of requirements.

The service does not ask for, or make, any money. It is similar to some other services, but draws on public data, including information provided on individual food bank’s own websites. That means they do not need to sign up to benefit.

“Food banks are already busy. We don’t want to give them extra things to do,” said Mr McMurray, a software engineer at Accenture, who used company’s charity days to develop the idea.

“We want to use the simplicity of technology and kindness of people, then join them together to direct the right food to the right people.”

That could lead to “less hunger, less waste, and less food poverty”, he said.

The need is clear from data in his area. There was a 54% rise in food parcels handed out in the North East of England in 2022-23 compared with the previous year, among a record three million across the country, according to The Trussell Trust – the UK’s largest food bank provider.

Close to Mr McMurray, the network of 36 food banks in County Durham and Sunderland provided food to 2,000 people at the start of last year. By this March, that had risen to more than 4,000 individuals, with children accounting for more than a third of them.

Rising demand for help and fewer donations are the result of food prices rising at their fastest rate for 45 years, having gone up by 19.1% in a year, according to official statistics. Those trends shows no sign of stopping, despite predictions of a slowdown in price inflation, according to Paul Conlon, distribution manager for Sunderland and County Durham food banks.

“Food prices have really affected donations,” he said. “Month-on-month, donations are decreasing – less food is coming in to the warehouse from the public. At the same time, the number of people using food banks is increasing.”

It is the same story at the other end of the country. In Bromley, south east London, the Living Well food bank spent more than £5,000 in April on produce to give out. Before Covid it ran on donated food alone. Among those who need it now are families with working parents, included one who has three jobs.

Elsewhere, figures from surveys by the Charities Aid Foundation show that financial donations to food banks peaked in the run-up to Christmas, then slumped in February, although there has been some recovery since. Food banks told the charity that donated supplies had been “erratic” at best.

Mr Conlon, from the Durham food banks network, said any donations were welcome but, in general, there was a greater need for toiletries, as well as tinned meat and fish.

People were more likely to drop pasta, cooking sauce and tins of beans in the collection baskets at supermarkets and churches. Evidence of the mismatch was all around him in a warehouse where a team of volunteers were sorting items primarily given by the public.

The solution, he said, was to think more creatively.

Human-centric technology like Donation Genie is one example of that, community spirit is another.

A few miles away in Gateshead, some of the residents of Bensham Court are playing bingo. Hot dog sausages and tins of coffee are the prizes, signalling the shift in what may be considered a lucky luxury as prices soar.

In this sheltered accommodation, one flat has been converted into am emergency food bank. It is a lifeline for some of the 135 residents, all of whom are aged over 50.

However, there is such togetherness, that they are planning to top this up with food grown in a new allotment in the grounds of the 1960s tower block.

According to Julie Bray, social prescribing link worker at the local GP practice, such activities are bringing health as well as financial benefits. Both have been affected by Covid lockdowns and the rising cost of living.

“That keeps them away from their GPs, it stops them from taking medication, and is making them resilient again.”

Poonam lives here, has struggled financially, but said she had received vital help and support since she moved in, making her feel part of a family – and that was priceless.