Hull Food bank sees huge demand for services in December

Food banks in our region have been experiencing one of their busiest months on record...

More than 350 emergency food handouts have been given to families in Hull this December.

It means the charity's now helped around 5 thousand people over the course of 2017.

John Morris is from Hull Foodbank and says the school holidays is a particularly difficult time for parents...

"There are certainly people who've come back, months later and said, 'you've pretty well saved us'

"People, especially children should be getting a healthy diet and that's what they wouldn't be getting

"What we give is good, healthy food for them

"That is a big problem, it's not just not getting enough food, it's getting the wrong sort of food."

They say a quarter of the handouts they give are going to children.

John explains it's partly down to benefit delays:

"Very often with a single parent mother or father, or people who's parents are unemployed or very low pay and they just can't afford the food

"Often the problem is benefits being delayed cause for a period of time they have no money at all to live on, so they have to get food from somewhere."