At least 40 foodbanks are now operating across North Wales, according to a new study byBangor University.
Between 1998 to 2010 there were 16 across the whole of Wales - today there are 157.
PhD student David Beck carried out the research project and was the first study into how many foodbanks there are in Wales and when they increased in number.
Mr Beck discovered that Wales had six independent foodbanks between 1998-2010 but the number grew by 616% over the next five years to July 2015, when 43 independent foodbanks were traced.
He said he found that users of foodbanks did not necessarily identify themselves as poor despite living below the poverty line.
Mr Beck said: “Whatever your view of foodbanks it’s good that they are providing a safety net. But it would be better if there was no need for them at all.”
Foodbanks are currently running in towns including Amlwch, Holyhead, Llangefni, Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Bangor, Pwllheli, Barmouth, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and Prestatyn.
On Anglesey a mobile foodbank delivers food to families who face high travel costs and infrequent public transport.
The largest provider of foodbanks is the Trussell Trust.
However, the charity is supported by an unofficial network of small independently run foodbanks, often the work of volunteers working through small charities.
The Trust’s seven foodbanks grew to 36 during the same period - it had three satellite foodbanks during 2010, and now has 78.
Dr Hefin Gwilym, a social policy lecturer at Bangor university, said the rise in foodbanks had been “greatly hastened by welfare reform measures and austerity policies.”
He said: “Foodbanks are becoming institutionalised and an alternative to our familiar concept of the welfare state as more welfare provision is privatised or left to families and communities on a voluntary basis.”
"Lifeline"
Speaking at a poverty conference in Bangor University on Monday, Hywel Williams, MP for Arfon referred to Mr Beck’s research.
Mr Williams said: “There has been a huge surge in the use of foodbanks in Wales, as the revealing research by Bangor University’s David Beck shows so clearly.
“We now have 157 individual food banks covering both urban and rural areas.
“These are a lifeline to so many local families.”
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/bangor-university-study-reveals-surge-11083539
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