The UK economy is said to be on the mend with unemployment falling and real wages rising again. But nearly a million people rely on food banks – and the numbers are growing Food banks were an understandable necessity during the depths of the deepest recession to affect Britain since the Second World War. But it seems surprising that as the economy has turned the corner and is now supposedly growing at a faster rate than any other country in Europe, the demand for food aid has continued to expand. According to Niall Cooper, director of Church Action on Poverty, the pattern is similar to what has happened in Canada since food banks were introduced in the early 1980s – in what was perceived as a tough economic time. There, the number of food banks has increased by nearly 100,000