SDLP Social Justice Spokesperson Mark H Durkan has said he is appalled after learning that more than 36,000 food parcels were distributed across the North in just one year.
Said the Foyle MLA: “During a Question Time session in the Assembly in early February, I raised the issue of food poverty with Minister Deidre Hargey who undertook to come back to me with details.
“The Minister has now confirmed that in 2018/19, the Trussell Trust has distributed 36,783 food parcels across the North. Frighteningly, more than 15,000 of these were for children.
“These statistics are deeply worrying and behind the figures are families and children living in poverty and anxiety. We must do more to end food poverty.
“It is nothing short of an outrage that a well off society has so many children living in poverty and needing to receive food parcels.
“I will be raising this issue with Minister Hargey at the earliest opportunity.
“And I will be asking her to work with me and colleagues across the Assembly to urgently address this issue and improve the Dickensian conditions which many across the North live in.”
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