Cumbrian foodbanks brace for busy Christmas

Food banks across the Trussell Trust network are expecting to provide more than one million emergency food parcels between December 2023 and February 2024 – the most parcels ever provided across this period. This equates to an average of one food parcel every eight seconds (11,500 a day) and 7,000 people seeking support each day.

Between December and February last year, these food banks supported more than 220,000 children with emergency food, and 225,000 people who needed to use a food bank for the first time but it is anticipated these numbers will be even higher this year.

The charity state that while donation levels have remained stable compared to last year, the continued increase in need is leading to the vast majority of food banks having to purchase stock to make up for this shortfall. A recent survey of 282 food banks indicated that in the last three months 93 per cent had to purchase food, at a time when prices are higher than ever, in order to keep up with the rising levels of need. These pressures have also led to one in three food banks reporting that they are concerned about being able to continue running at their current level in the coming months.

It's a similar story for The Carlisle Foodbank. They are currently delivering around 1000 parcels a month to families in need, but are concerned that a swell in demand may leave them short of produce to distribute to the community.

Stephanie Humes is the manager there, she said: "We just have to take each day as it comes. We can never guess how many people are going to come through the door.

"It's a tricky one but we just have to make sure we have enough volunteers in, people sorting the donations and enough people stacking the bags and make sure we're ready for the day.

"We are seeing a lot more new families who have never used us before. We think that's only going to get worse going into the Winter time.

"We have a couple of families who are currently chosing to either pay their mortgage or feed their children. It's absolutely heartbreaking some of the stories we hear in here and the tough decisions that families are having to take.

"We always need donations. There's never a week where we think 'oh we don't need this', we always need donations."

Also commenting on the difficulties facing foodbanks across the country was Emma Revie, Chief Executive of the Trussell Trust, who said: "We don’t want to spend every winter saying things at food banks are getting worse, but they are. Food banks are not the answer in the long term, but while we continue to fight for the change that could mean they can be closed for good your local food bank urgently needs your support.

"They need donations of food for emergency parcels, and money to fund costs such as the purchasing of food to meet the shortfall in donations they are currently experiencing.

"One in seven people in the UK face hunger because they don’t have enough money to live on. That’s not the kind of society we want to live in, and we won’t stand by and let this continue. Every year we are seeing more and more people needing food banks, and that is just not right."