5.3mil people chose between eating and keeping clean in the past year
According to research by the Hygiene Bank 20 million people have never heard of hygiene poverty
In the past year, 5.3 million people in the UK have had to choose between buying food or toiletries.
New research from the Hygiene Bank has found that although 8 percent of the UK population is currently experiencing hygiene poverty - around 20 million people still haven’t heard of the issue and the impact it has on people’s daily lives.
Project Co-ordinator for the Southend Hygiene Bank, Sam Doobay, tells Greatest Hits Radio it's "a serious issue".
"It's very basic items that we might take for granted everyday - soap, toilet paper, toothbrush. These are the things my community workers are asking for - that's the most devastating part of it".
The Hygiene Bank has created a "protest product", The Edible Soap, to highlight what they've called "an invisible crisis".
The soap, which you can eat or use to wash yourself, has been made with organic cacao butter, organic oat flour, avocado oil, tomato sauce, toast flavouring, bean flavouring, paprika, and Celtic Sea salt.
The initiative will call for the removal of VAT in soap.
Mrs Doobay continues: "A lot of people that visit the foodbank are young, who have kids themselves."
"They're trying to make sure that they themselves are okay, let alone their children too."
Mrs Doobay has called hygiene poverty an "unspoken suffering" and says many experiencing it "feel a sense of shame" and are therefore reluctant to get help.
Mrs Doobay advises those who need help to attend pop-up foodbanks in Essex: "you do not need to record any personal details, you can just take what you need and go."
The Hygiene Bank's Edible Soap is on sale, with funds from sales going directly to the charity.
"Hygiene Poverty is not something to be ashamed off, we need to take off this pressure to make it easier for those suffering", says Mrs Doobay.