SDLP Opposition Communities Spokesperson Daniel McCrossan has said the Executive must act to tackle hunger and food poverty.

He was speaking after new research from the Trussell Trust showed around 200,000 people in the North are facing hunger, including 62,000 children.

This is an increase of 21,000 people from 2019/20.

West Tyrone MLA Mr McCrossan said:

“The growing numbers of people facing hunger in the North should shame our Executive who have done little to tackle this issue since the re-establishment of the Stormont institutions. Behind these statistics are families, including children, who are going hungry because they don’t have enough to eat. Older people who face the choice between paying for heating or food and parents who skip meals so that their children can eat.

“This is not a problem that has sprung up or will be solved overnight. In the last decade we have seen a huge increase in the number of foodbanks springing up here and without this vital lifeline there’s no doubt things would be even worse. We can’t continue to rely on the community sector to step up and support people where the Executive has failed to make any meaningful intervention.

“The SDLP is serious about tackling this issue and at our recent Conference we endorsed becoming a Right to Food party. This campaign wants to see the right to food enshrined in law, funding for community kitchens, universal free school meals and the restoration of holiday hunger payments and these initiatives would make a huge difference here.

“That poverty was not included in the Executive’s Programme for Government priorities and they are still to bring forward a Anti-Poverty Strategy underpinned with targets to tackle these issues shows that they are not treating this with the seriousness it deserves and until they do people will continue to suffer.”