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<p><del class="ministerial">It has not proved possible to respond to this question
in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with
the Member.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">There is no official data or record
of the number of foodbanks in the UK. However, the Government wants to develop a better
understanding of household food needs to help ensure that support is targeted at those
who need it most. This is why the Government has worked with food insecurity experts,
the Office for National Statistics and the Scottish Government to introduce a new
set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey starting from April
2019. This means that we will in future be able to able to monitor the prevalence
and severity of household food insecurity across the UK and for specific groups, to
better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most
at risk.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">To help families on low incomes we are
supporting 1.3 million children with free school meals, investing up to £26 million
in school breakfast clubs, providing approximately 2.3 million children aged 4-6 with
a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school, and, through the Healthy
Start Programme, hundreds of thousands of low income families benefit from vouchers
which can be redeemed against fruit, vegetables, milk and infant formula.</ins></p><p>
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