‘Winter is a tough time for people’: Food banks facing high demand at Christmas

An Edinburgh charity is encouraging the public to donate to food banks this winter as rising food prices, energy bills and Christmas pressure create a “higher demand”.

Laura van der Hoeven, chief executive of the Edinburgh Food Project, said that the number of food parcels the charity has delivered has “more than doubled” since the pandemic.

She said that from the beginning of December to Christmas alone, the food bank is expecting to deliver thousands of food parcels.

She added: “We will expect to distribute about 2,000 food parcels between now and Christmas.

“Over the year that would take us to approximately 20,000 food parcels distributed to about 6,000 households.”

According to food poverty charity Trussell, 239,500 food parcels were delivered in Scotland between April 1 2024 and March 31 2025.

While this is a decrease from around 265,000 parcels in 2023/2024, the number is still consistent with the growing trend of food bank usage over the past decade.

Over the past 10 years, emergency food parcel distribution in Scotland has doubled.

Trussell’s May 2025 statistic release said:  “There is a real risk, without any significant shift, we are facing a new normal of extraordinarily high levels of severe financial hardship in our communities.”

The Edinburgh Food Project run seven food banks, registered with Trussell across Edinburgh. The charity also runs a money advice service to help those in poverty access support.

Ms van der Hoeven said that not only are the statistics of those seeking food support higher but due to rising food prices, the amount that is being donated is less than before.

She said: “There is huge demand for emergency food support, and that demand isn’t going down in a significant way. And of course, the rising cost of food is having a big impact not only on the people who turn to us for support but also in the pockets of the people who support us.

“If people were in a regular habit of donating, you know, a fiver’s worth of food with their food shop every week, that’s not buying as much anymore as it previously was. So managing the rising demand and making sure that we have enough food to support people is a real challenge for us.”

The winter months prove to be a busier time for the food bank. Due to cold weather, energy bills are much higher in the winter, with Ofgem also announcing in November that a price cap increase of 0.2% would come into effect at the start of January.

Ms van der Hoeven said the added pressure of Christmas creates a higher demand during the winter months for food parcels.

“In the winter, with higher heating bills, higher energy bills, we see more demand for emergency food and obviously, there’s a lot of pressure on people at Christmas financially,” she said.

“We live in the society that we live in. There’s huge expectation, particularly for families with children to maybe make sacrifices elsewhere to make sure that they can have a magical Christmas for their kids.”

The Edinburgh Food Project is encouraging communities to consider donating to a food bank this winter so they can continue to provide support when it is needed.

Ms van der Hoeven continued: “Christmas is always a really busy time for us and in the run-up to Christmas, we are always actually overwhelmed by the generosity of the community. Both the businesses that support us and the people who donate food to us.

“We would really encourage people to please keep donating to us throughout the winter, because the winter is a really tough time for a lot of people.”