Food bank parcel deliveries in Holborn and St Pancras have rocketed by more than 60,000 since 2018.
New data from anti-poverty charity The Trussell Trust showed that the constituency received 7,427 parcels in 2018 and 67,898 in 2025, an increase of 60,471, by far the largest jump out of all London constituencies.
Ealing Southall saw the second highest rise, up from 20,543 to 24,638 followed by Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
The figures seem to point to a London-wide pattern of rising food needs over the last seven years.
A Camden food bank worker said he has seen around a 50% increase in people using their food bank in the last year.
He said: “More and more people are turning to food banks because of low income, disability issues or because they have just come out of prison.
“Food banks are the best option for these people.”
He blamed salaries and benefits not being able to keep up with the cost-of-living pressures for rise.
“Cost-of-living has gone up, but salaries and benefits haven’t, not to mention the rising costs of food and energy bills,” he said.
“People are literally having to choose between heating and eating.”
The work and pensions secretary has a different opinion.
He recently signalled to the Guardian a possible reform on welfare as he believe the Government should not simply be handing out cheques for health and disability benefits, and he wants to encourage more people to work.
But food bank users and staff see a completely different story as there’s still the problem of stagnant salaries.
The Camden food bank worker also wanted to emphasise there are many factors behind the scale of the rise of food bank parcel deliveries in Holborn and St Pancras specifically.
He said: “There are plenty of reasons other than demand for this constituency to have seen such a rise.
“For example, Camden Council are quite generous with their recourses and so are big supermarkets, such as Tesco’s, who are one of our biggest donors.
“Another factor is that people could be feeling less shame about coming to a food bank.”
Throughout London there has been an 180% increase in the total number of food bank deliveries, which rose from 152,194 in 2018 to 428,969 in 2025.
Some constituencies such as Wimbledon and East Ham have seen a fall in food bank deliveries in the past seven years.
However, the data shows food bank usage overall in London is on the rise and exposes the scale of food insecurity throughout the capital.
And although there are many different reasons for the increase in food bank deliveries, it is hard to ignore the link between food poverty and Government policy.
The Camden food bank worker said: “There is so much money in Camden, yet food bank usage in on the rise.
“It’s crazy because there are so many tourists in Camden who have no idea what is actually going on.”
Camden Council were contacted for a comment.
You can read more about food banks here.
Featured image credit: Joel Muniz on Unsplash, with thanks
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