FOODBANK charity the Trussell Trust has appealed to political parties to back a supportive social security system, after announcing that it had distributed a record number of parcels to people in need over the last year.

It said that 3,121,404 parcels had been distributed up to the end of March, over a third of which were for children.

The charity said that the number had almost doubled in the last five years and that the number of first-time users was up by 40 per cent.