TEHRAN- Food banks in the United Kingdom are on the brink of "breaking point" as a record number of British people seek assistance, while the stage has been set for British nurses to stage a walkout for the first time in history amid a worsening cost of living crisis.

The grim warning by the Trussell Trust, which supports a network of over 1,200 food banks across the country and works to end UK hunger and poverty comes after the NGO revealed nearly 1.3 million emergency food parcels have been supplied to people over the past six months alone.

The leading charity, says its new research, has shown that around half a million of those food parcels that have been handed out over the past six months went to children.

The trust has warned food banks have reached "breaking point" because of what it described as a tsunami of people in need, driven by the cost of living crisis. It has demanded the government to provide stronger support in its upcoming autumn statement, which offers an update on the government's future economic plans for the country.

The organization says the record-breaking levels of food assistance, with 320,000 people being forced to turn to food charities for the first time must be considered as a matter of extreme concern for the newly appointed ministers in Downing Street.

In a reflection of how the British population is slowly slipping into poverty, the figures released by the NGO (whose workforce of 28,000 volunteers also provide urgent support to those in poverty) more emergency food parcels were handed out during the April to September period than ever before.

The volunteer workforce is set to experience its busiest winter to date, as the charity group says the level of donations provided by the public does not currently meet the urgent needs of the people suffering as result of a record inflation rate, that has been exacerbated by an unprecedented rise in energy bills.

And in a further sign of concern, one in five people that are being referred to a food bank within the Trussell Trust network are among the working class household category. This means the number of people who are employed are increasingly seeking the help of food banks, reflecting the dire situation of the middle class.  

The number of food packages that have been handed out is double the number of that which was provided in the same timeframe before the pandemic and a third more than had been handed out between April and September last year.

The Trussell Trust's State of Hunger research found 95% of people being referred to food banks are destitute, essentially meaning they are not receiving enough income to buy the most basic essentials that working class households would normally require.

Speaking to the media, Josie Barlow, a manager at one food bank in the city of Bradford, said one foodbank user told her "buying milk is a luxury now".

"We are fortunate to be able to help people and we work hard to support them in both the short and long term, but we are also facing challenges," Barlow pointed out.

However, she warned "we have seen a huge increase in people coming to the food bank in the last two months compared with the same period last year and our stock levels are very low for this time of the year."

Emma Revie, who is chief executive at the Trussell Trust, says "these new statistics show that, even in summer months, people are struggling to afford the essentials and we are expecting that this winter will be the hardest yet for food banks and the people they support. This is not right."

She added that the leading charity group is "calling for the prime minister to act decisively in next week's budget. We urge the UK government to realize their commitment of supporting people on the lowest income with a broad package of support.

"As well as ensuring that benefits rise with inflation as soon as possible, this must go further to close the gap between price rises and incomes over the winter."

The dire news comes on the backdrop of an announcement by the largest union in the UK, that represents hundreds of thousands of nurses, which revealed a vote has been reached to hold the first nationwide strike in the union's 106-year history.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said that the strike will affect the majority of National Health Service (NHS) employers in the UK as the anger of British nurses has reached boiling point, forcing them to take industrial action against their low pay levels as well as patient safety concerns.

The walkout comes after years of warnings that nurses, who are the foundation of the NHS, and suffered gravely during the Covid pandemic, are being treated unfairly by consecutive Tory governments. According to the RCN, most of the hospitals in England will see strike action but others are reported to have narrowly missed the legal turnout thresholds required to participate in the walkout.

The strike action by nurses has received backing from the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, which said "It is still within the government's gift to pay healthcare staff fairly for the vital, often lifesaving work that they do. We urge government to listen to the concerns of frontline health staff and deliver the investment that the NHS and its workforce so desperately need."

According to the RCN, in addition to England, all NHS employers in Northern Ireland and Scotland will be included and all bar one in Wales met the voting threshold.

The Secretary General and chief executive of the RCN Pat Cullen has said that "anger has become action - our members are saying enough is enough.

"The voice of nursing in the UK is strong and I will make sure it is heard. Our members will no longer tolerate a financial knife edge at home and a raw deal at work.

"Ministers must look in the mirror and ask how long they will put nursing staff through this." 

While we plan our strike action, next week's budget is the UK government's opportunity to signal a new direction with serious investment. Across the country, politicians have the power to stop this now and at any point. This action will be as much for patients as it is for nurses."

"Standards are falling too low and we have strong public backing for our campaign to raise them. This winter, we are asking the public to show nursing staff you are with us."

The RCN has declared that it will be monitoring ward by ward in every hospital across the UK to make sure adequate staffing levels are maintained, which means nurses may be asked to leave picket lines and join staff in hospitals.

The union had previously urged more than 300,000 of its members to vote in favor of strike action over their low wages. Those voices grew louder after recent research suggested 32,000 nurses leave the NHS every year because of pay and work conditions.

It has made regular calls on the government to allow its members to receive a pay rise of 5% above the Retail Price Index which measures the inflation rate and calculates the cost of living and wages. But this has been rejected by authorities in England, Scotland and Wales and the refusal has been met with condemnation by the public, nurses, NHS employers as well as patients.

Analysis by the RCN shows that since 2010, the most experienced nurse's salary has dropped by 20% in real terms. The union says British nurses are working the equivalent of one day a week for nothing.

Speaking to reporters, the UK's Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay claims hospitals "need to recognise that these are economically challenging times".

Many reports suggest patients are supportive of the strike action, even despite an ever-rising waiting list for appointments to see doctors as well as for medical treatment.

It has also been revealed that health workers in other unions, such as ambulance staff, hospital porters and cleaners, are also in the process of voting on industrial action over pay.

Critics say the ruling Conservative "government of the rich" can afford to cut taxes for the wealthy sectors of society but is not concerned about NHS staff who served on the front line to save lives yet are leaving their jobs in droves because of poor pay and working conditions.