Rising food bank use in the UK: Sign of a new public health emergency?

The provision of food aid through food banks has recently expanded in the UK. By providing free bags of food to people experiencing financial shortfalls, food banks aim to prevent individuals and families from going without food. A growing body of research has sought to understand this type of provisioning, from what it indicates about social security in the UK, to what it indicates about the problem of food insecurity. Here, recent research on the characteristics of people receiving help from food banks is reviewed, highlighting that they serve the most financially vulnerable groups in the UK: people with disabilities, people receiving out-of-work benefits, and lone parents. The severity and chronicity of food insecurity observed in this population is a public health concern, as is evidence of high rates of poor mental health. Food banks have largely gone unevaluated for how well they do at meeting the needs of people using them, but focusing on building better food banks may also serve to further entrench voluntary and charitable food assistance as part of the social safety net in the UK. Given evidence that policy interventions such as pensions and income transfers reduce food insecurity, the importance of restoring strong social safety nets for reducing the need for food banks and food insecurity is discussed.