Cost of living: Food banks hand out thousands of emergency parcels to hungry children in Leeds

But this represents just a fraction of the 32,408 children living in poverty in the city, suggesting many more may be going without.

The Trussell Trust distributed a record 480,000 food parcels for children across the UK in the six months to September, including 5,780 in Leeds.

This compares with 3,059 children’s parcels given out in the area in the same period five years before.

Emma Revie, the charity’s chief executive, said: “Children shouldn’t have to worry about the cost of living crisis, yet in the past six months, food banks in the Trussell Trust network provided more than 483,000 emergency food parcels for children across the UK.

“People are coming to food banks telling us they are unable to turn the heating on and are skipping meals so they can feed their children.

“Food banks in our network are set to face their hardest winter yet as the cost of living emergency is driving a tsunami of need. This is not right.

“Food banks are not inevitable, and as a charity we campaign and push for the changes needed to ensure a future where they are not needed.”

Compared to the overall population, children are more likely to be in low income households, government figures show.

In Leeds, 32,408 under-16s were living in absolute poverty last year, some 21 per cent of the population of that age.

Absolute poverty means a family income is below the level needed to maintain basic living standards in terms of food, shelter and housing.

In the recent autumn statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt agreed to increase benefits in line with rocketing inflation.

A spokesperson for the UK government said it had also put in place other measures to support “households in need following the aftershocks from the pandemic and Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine”.

This included sending another Cost of Living Payment in November worth £324 to more than eight million households, part of a £1,200 package for those on the lowest incomes.

Further payments worth up to £900 will be given to eligible households in the 2023/24 financial year.