St Helens food bank say 200 more children have come through their doors
They expect the the number to rise even more this winter.
Last updated 27th Nov 2023
The Hope Centre in St Helens say they've seen 200 MORE children come through their doors this year - a number which they expect this to increase even more this Winter.
This comes as the cost of living continues to bite with many worried about the winter ahead.
Sally Britch from the Hope Centre tells us people are already struggling: "I've had one person come to me where they've been off work because their child has been ill, and so they've not been paid.
"So the child has eaten, but they've not eaten for a couple of days and they're really desperate."
A recent report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found almost almost four million people, including more than a million children, experienced the most extreme form of poverty last year in the UK.
These numbers for children have more than trebled since 2017 and reached around a million since the research began in 2015.
Sally told us that with the increase in demand they're also seeing a decrease in donations: "Everybody's struggling that's why the donations are going down.
"Sometimes people nip in and put a donation in the basket we have in reception and that's gone down as well."
She tells us they're currently short of are essentials like: sugar, coffee, rice, tinned soup, jars of pasta and curry sauces.
Sally says they're overwhelmed with hearing so many tragic stories: "We had one last week the fridge had broke down and they act up a new fridge so they couldn't afford food.
She's grateful for any local support, but really wants the government to step in: "Hopefully they'll put food prices down.
"Some of them are stayed the same, but the things of shrunk, otherwise, they've gone up.
"They've not even got a couple of pence, it's a pound, it's one pound fifty.
"And then again, help with people with it through the winter with fuel."