Trussell Trust: Using local food bank data to create curiosity and drive action

Tapping into the curiosity gap with a postcode-powered action

Every year, the Trussell Trust publishes how many emergency food parcels its network of food banks has distributed across the UK. In 2024, they wanted to do more than just share the headline stats. 

They wanted people to see the scale of hunger in their own area and feel compelled to act. At the same time, they were keen to explore whether an interactive action could lead supporters naturally into a higher-bar action like emailing their MP.

Personalised journeys powered by postcode data

We created an interactive postcode lookup tool using Impact Stack 2.0. Supporters entered their postcode to instantly see the number of emergency food parcels handed out in their area. This personalised, local experience was designed to grab attention through curiosity and create an emotional connection.

From there, users were then prompted to take a follow-up action, emailing their MP to push for political solutions to end hunger. The second step of the journey seamlessly linked from the new action and used the same dataset to provide MPs with locally relevant stats.

The Trussell team worked closely with food banks and regional teams to make sure the statistics made sense locally. The tool was built to handle complexity, with three different versions of the results step; eg where constituency-level data was unavailable, for example if there was no food bank in the constituency itself, the supporter would see a relevant regional statistic instead.

Local engagement meets national influence

The results were impressive. Over 18,000 postcode lookups were submitted and more than 500 emails were sent to MPs, reaching 350 parliamentary constituencies.

A paid ad campaign utilised £5,800 budget to deliver over 2.2 million impressions and drive more than 43,000 clicks, with a cost per click of just 16p.

Food banks responded positively to the tool and used it to spark local conversations.

Laying the groundwork for more layered supporter journeys

The tool has now been built into Trussell’s annual campaign cycle, offering a reusable framework to drive engagement year after year. While this was their first time daisy-chaining from a curiosity-based action to a political one, it’s something the team is keen to explore further, especially with future versions that could include richer targeting, creative variants or more layered supporter journeys.

At the moment the tool links to video content allowing users to hear directly from food bank users and put faces and real stories to the statistics on hunger. You can try out the Parcels by Postcode tool here.

“We wanted a way for people to see hunger in their own community, and this tool delivered that. We’re excited to keep building on it.”

— Hannah McCulloch, Audience Mobilisation Manager, Trussell Trust.