Trussell Trust heroes: Meet the volunteers behind one of the UK’s leading food banks - ahead of Christmas 2022

All across the United Kingdom, especially in the build up to Christmas, families are more desperate than ever due to the cost of living crisis. Inflation, energy bills and weekly groceries are at record highs as individuals face the desperate choice of heating or eating.

That is where Trussell Trust comes in. As one of the country’s leading food bank networks with more than 1,300 centres across the UK, thousands of dependants, and a tireless workforce of over 40,000 volunteers who act as an important safety net for those struggling.

Though due to rising operational costs, as well as surging demand for food banks, Trussell Trust needs support itself to continue fighting the good fight. That’s why National World has partnered with the charity as it campaigns to raise funds to keep food banks going this winter.

With the help of the partnership between National World and Trussell Trust, people like Lowri Williams can continue to get the support they so desperately need. Ms Williams, 59, is a self-employed single mother and food bank user, who found herself out of a job, penniless, and forced to remove her daughter Millie from private school.

She told National World: “There was a time when Millie would pass a food bank trolley in a supermarket and not know what it was. The food bank I used had a table with little luxuries like nail varnish on and the volunteers would ask you to take something, it really made a difference!”

Lowri no longer depends on food banks to support her and daughter Millie but she knows all too well just how important the help and support offered by the Trussell Trust will be to so many people this Christmas.

A vital cog in the Trussell Trust machine that pushes it forward are the tens of thousands of Food Bank Friends - the name given to volunteers - that work tirelessly from one end of the year to the next  to feed families. Between April and September alone, they were responsible for providing nearly 1.3 million emergency food parcels - and almost half-a-million of those went to children.