Over 25,000 visits were paid to food aid projects in Birmingham in just one week, new research has revealed. Preliminary findings from the City-Wide Food Aid Count 2026, released by the Food Justice Network, indicate there were 25,605 visits to food aid projects across the city during a single week in Spring 2026.
On average, this works out at approximately 157 people per food project. However, as Alex Doyle, engagement officer at the Food Justice Network, explained, this survey does not capture the full extent of the situation regarding food poverty in Birmingham, as there are more food projects operating in the city than those that responded to the survey.
Speaking about the food poverty crisis, Alex said: “The whole of Birmingham is definitely affected by food poverty. There are lots of bases in east Birmingham, for example, which are, from what we’ve seen, experiencing high deprivation [and] don’t necessarily have the same strength of community resources which lend themselves to providing food support.”
He added: “It’s such a huge and diverse city and food banks and food pantries are cropping up all the time and then disappearing. But in terms of levels of food poverty and deprivation, I think the consensus is east Birmingham is the area which requires the most attention.”
The figures for Spring 2026 are slightly higher than in 2025, with just over three thousand more visits recorded in the 2026 Food Aid Count compared to the 2025 version, which saw 22,367 visits. Alex highlighted that the cost of living crisis is one of the primary reasons why so many people are seeking help from food resources.
He stated: “We know that the benefits rate and the wages just aren’t keeping pace with the cost of food. That’s the fundamental reason for why so many people are coming. There’s also less surplus food available, which means it’s harder for people to access free food and harder for food banks and pantries to provide that food.”
