Kings Lynn's most vulnerable are facing 'perfect storm', says food bank
The West-Norfolk charity say they have supplied over 400 people with food in January
Kings Lynn's most vulnerable are facing a 'perfect storm' of rising inflation and higher taxes, according to the town's food bank.
The West-Norfolk charity say they have supplied over 400 people with food in January.
That's a slight drop on the 485 people, including 188 children, who were fed by donations from local people in December.
Helen Gilbert is the project manager at foodbank: "It's not just National Insurance, it is that combined with rising energy and food prices. The price of everything is going up and this is squeezing people's budgets more and more."
She told us that the Government and local MPs need to do more: "They need to open their eyes to what is really going on. There are jobs available for people, but quite a lot of them are at minimum wage and offer very few hours.
"This means they are not getting the amount of hours they need, so of course yes, they are coming off the unemployment list but they are still not earning enough to support themselves and their family."
But she also admitted that some have gone above and beyond: "The Borough Council have been absolutely excellent over the last few months and had a real heart for helping people who are in need.
"They have probably been one of the best across the county, I've had conversations with the county council, and our borough council is something to be proud of in the way that they have been responding to people over the last few months-they've been amazing."
She concluded by saying they're prepared for the worst, thanks to local people donations: "The people of Kings Lynn are always incredibly generous and I want to thank everyone for all of their donations, we had some massive donations just before Christmas.
"That all goes towards topping up our supplies, so we have currently got 23 tonnes of food- which is remarkable."