“Suddenly the cost of living goes up and our queues have gone higher than ever,” said Elyas Ismail, founder and chief operating officer of Newham Community Project, which last year made headlines for supporting over 1,000 international students who were struggling to afford food during the pandemic.
Now, the London food bank says it has once again seen a spike in demand, with the number of users, the majority of whom are international students, tripling since the beginning of this year.
The UK’s National Union of Students warned earlier this month that 11% of all students in the UK are accessing food banks, up from 5% in January 2022.
