Singer James Morrison has spoken of his own experiences of going hungry as he helped out at a food bank in Stroud, Gloucestershire on Thursday afternoon (April 28).

The award-winning musician helped out packing emergency food parcels at the unit at Hope Mills Lane in Brimscombe, Stroud.

The visit comes as anti-poverty charity the Trussell Trust revealed that food banks in its network provided more than 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people across the UK over the past year, in new statistics published yesterday

The singer, who rose to fame with his debut single "You Give Me Something," told staff and volunteers at Stroud District Food Bank how he himself had experienced poverty when he would often go to school hungry.

He said: “I know what it’s like to go without – it’s something I can really relate to. My mum was a single mum and a nurse and she did everything she could but with three of us, there just wasn’t enough money to have three meals a day.

“We often went without breakfast and free school meals got me through. I still rarely eat breakfast and can go without food for long periods of time because of my childhood. It’s played a huge part in who I am because I know how it feels to not have enough.”

He said if his family had received a food parcel it would have been a huge help, but that the situation was a "double-edged sword," because food banks "should not need to exist."

Music legend James Morrison has spoken of his own experiences of going hungry as he helped out at Stroud Foodbank this afternoon.

The award-winning musician helped out packing emergency food parcels at the unit at Hope Mills Lane in Brimscombe, Gloucestershire.

The visit comes as anti-poverty charity the Trussell Trust revealed that food banks in its network provided more than 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people across the UK over the past year, in new statistics published yesterday

The soul singer, who rose to fame with his debut single ‘You Give Me Something’, told staff and volunteers at Stroud District Foodbank how he himself had experienced poverty when he would often go to school hungry.

He said: “I know what it’s like to go without – it’s something I can really relate to. My mum was a single mum and a nurse and she did everything she could but with three of us, there just wasn’t enough money to have three meals a day.

“We often went without breakfast and free school meals got me through. I still rarely eat breakfast and can go without food for long periods of time because of my childhood. It’s played a huge part in who I am because I know how it feels to not have enough.”

He said if his family had received a food parcel it would have been a huge help, but that the situation was a ‘double-edged sword’, because food banks ‘should not need to exist’.