THE use of foodbanks has increased 40 per cent in Sussex in the last four years.

In East Sussex in 2013, 15,952 emergency food parcels were handed out, according to data from the Trussell Trust. Last year it was estimated to have been 24,018: an increase of more than 50 per cent.

In West Sussex in 2013, 8,961 emergency food parcels were handed out; in 2017 it was 10,830: an increase of nearly 21 per cent.

Across both sides of the county that means nearly 10,000 more food parcels have been handed out this year than just four years ago, and the combined increase is around 40 per cent.

In Brighton and Hove, which had 13 foodbanks in 2014 but now has 16, the weekly rate of use has increased as well.

In 2014 foodbanks in the city handed out 266 parcels per week; last year it was 315 - that is an increase of 18 per cent.

The Brighton and Hove Food Partnership which brings together statutory and voluntary organisation to alleviate food poverty, said the use of “lunch clubs” and community meal programmes has also increased.

Green MEP for the South East region, Keith Taylor, who commissioned the study, said: “Foodbanks are a lifeline to those in need across the South East but, at the same time, they continue to be a stain on the government’s record on poverty and inequality.

“In the last four years, Conservative ministers have overseen at least a 20 per cent rise in foodbank dependency in my constituency alone.”

“Low income is now one of the single biggest reasons why people are forced to seek emergency food aid.

“Similarly, we have seen the number of rough sleepers increase 169 per cent under the Tories while homelessness has soared.

“In the South East, there are now more than 27,000 people without a home.

“Poverty, homelessness and foodbank dependency are issues that are inexorably linked and have intensified in the last seven years.”