More than 5,000 emergency food parcels were handed out by the Isle of Wight Foodbank in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

2,190 of them went to children on the Island.

The Trussell Trust foodbank charity is using the forthcoming May 6 elections to challenge local candidates, asking them to commit to working to end the need for foodbanks.

The Island's 5,079 parcels, including enough supplies for three or seven days, was actually a nineteen per cent decrease on the total number recorded in 2019.

However, the charity says a reduction in emergency food supplies on the Isle of Wight should not be interpreted as a decrease in need.

It said its data does not revealing the full scale of demand across the country because unprecedented numbers of people being helped by other organisations.

On the Island, help for struggling families came from pubs, other charities, churches, shops, schools and inidividuals. 

A report by the Trussell Trust shows a record 2.5 million parcels were distributed by its food banks across the UK in 2020-21 - a thirty three per cent increase on the previous year.

Of those, around 980,000 went to children.