Since February 2017, IFAN's Sabine Goodwin has been working to identify independent food banks providing food parcels outside of the Trussell Trust network.

The definition of a food bank or food bank style project for the purposes of this research is a venue which regularly gives out emergency food parcels at least once a week. The list of independent food banks is routinely updated. If you would like to make reference to this research in any publication or report please cite Sabine Goodwin and the Independent Food Aid Network.

Results from this research, reported in The Guardian and other national newspapers, revealed that there were at least 651 independent food banks operating across Britain in May 2017.

With work continuing a further 521 more food banks have been identified, bringing the total number of independents to at least 1172. This equates to over 45% of the combined total of independent and Trussell Trust food banks with the Trussell Trust network currently extending to 1,393. There are at least 2,565 Trussell Trust and independent food banks operating across the UK.

This research has been vital in bringing attention to the true scale of food poverty in the UK while also raising the profile of independent food banks. The list has been recently used to collate emergency food parcel distribution data from across the UK as well as for a study of 114 independent food banks operating across England.

Our list does not include food banks run from Salvation Army centres or food banks run from schools, universities or hospitals. In addition, we estimate that there are also more than 3,500 independent food aid providers operating outside of the food bank model. IFAN maintains that to understand the true scale of food poverty in the UK it's essential to measure food insecurity and we very much welcome the recent insertion of food insecurity measurement questions in the DWP's Family Resources Survey.