A Lincoln foodbank says this Christmas will be "devastating" for families

"Bursting at the seams" is how one Lincoln foodbank has been described, as families begin to seek help for Christmas. St Giles Methodist Church offers a range of services and we've been speaking to some of those using them.

St Giles Methodist Church is located a short distance outside Lincoln City Centre, it offers many services, like a free-for-all, food bank, and coffee mornings. They are there to provide to the local community.

We spoke to these women, who were using a range of these services about how they plan to cope this Christmas.

Leah is local to the area and has been going to the church since she had her son, a few years ago, she has recently been asked to relocate from her property and has had to fund the purchasing of new items, just before Christmas hits. She says it's a difficult time:

"As children they don't understand that Christmas isn't about presents, so it makes it awfully tricky, so with the support of the church, we've been able to get them things, just little bits and bobs that would normally cost us probably £50-60 to get them new.

"It'd be nice to see him just, even just rip a little bit of paper off some presents and enjoy a Christmas dinner now that he's old enough to be able to eat some, and just generally having that quality time with your family without worrying."

Crystal is another mother that uses the services at the church, she has two daughters and told us she suffers with depression and anxiety which has been impacted by the rising costs:

"I'm a single mum, I've got my two children, and I don't know what I'm going to do for Christmas. I'm scared, I'm worried and you know what kids are like... 'mummy can I have this, can I have that, I want this, and I want that' and it's like I don't even know if I can do a Christmas dinner.

"My oldest has just turned nine, so she's just had her birthday. Which I was panicking about anyway and then I'm thinking Oh my goodness, I've got Christmas next, I've got other people's birthdays and how am I going to do it? and 50 quid, 60 quid, 20 quid here and 10 quid there, it all adds up."

The Co Ordinator of the food bank and Worship leader, Cay Sherlock says this is becoming a regular picture:

"Since the winter's really started to kick in, we are having more and more people come in and it's not just single people, it's families. Families of 3 and 4 children and we're seeing new faces that we've never seen before.

"People are going to wonder how they can cope with Christmas, so we've got extra bits and pieces, you know Christmas bits that we can give at the time, in fact I've got 36 advent calendars under the desk here to give out. So, we are prepared, as much as we can be really."