To ask the Minister for Communities to detail any actions he will take to support the increasing number of adults and children who are living with food insecurity, as confirmed in the Trussell report on Hunger in Northern Ireland published in September 2025.

My Department takes the following actions to support those living with food insecurity:

Leading on the Executive Anti-Poverty Strategy which contains a range of interventions which will help mitigate impacts, reduce the risk of falling into poverty and support all those impacted to exit poverty, including those who are living with food insecurity.

Provides annual funding in the region of £7.6m to the independent advice and debt sector which play a critical role in addressing poverty.

Consulting on a refreshed Support Framework for Independent Advice and Debt Services. This will strengthen collaboration and improved referral pathways with other community supports including food banks and social supermarkets to ensure citizens have early access to advice services for holistic sustainable outcomes.

Allocating in the region of £2.86 million for 2025/26 to support Social Supermarket projects in each Council area.

Administers the unique Discretionary Support Scheme to provide short-term financial support by way of interest free loans or non-repayable grants, to help with living expenses and essential household items as per below. https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/finance-support

Delivers a wide range of employability support through our frontline Jobs and Benefits Offices and employment programmes.

Offers free and confidential needs assessments for individuals to check potential entitlements to social security benefits, additional support and services through Make the Call Service.

The NI Housing Executive assists tenants who are struggling financially and can trigger the delivery of the Making Your Money Work service to mitigate the immediate impacts of financial issues which create food insecurity/poverty.

The NI Housing Executive administers the Sustaining Tenancies Grant Funding Programme to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to deliver projects that support the sustainability and resilience of Housing Executive tenancies.

The NI Housing Executive administers the Homeless Prevention Fund to alleviate and prevent homelessness for customers presenting to front line teams.