Numbers using Torbay's 'social supermarket' have doubled
The service allows users to pay what they can to help families get back on their feet
There's now more than 200 users of Torbay's first so-called 'social supermarket' after numbers doubled in the past few weeks.
The supermarket - or travelling community van - allows people who are struggling to pay what they can afford for food which has been donated.
Food and other items are provided across seven locations in Torbay and the users change every 12 weeks - with the service designed to help people get back on their feet, maybe by paying off utility bills through temporarily reducing food costs.
Project coordinator Lisa Sedgeman said: "The people that we're seeing, the majority, are actually two working people in a household who are unable to pay for their private rent, they have bills going up - gas and electric going up - they can't afford it, even with the two wages coming in."
Reverend Nathan Kiyaga, the chair of the Torbay United group of churches and people working together, said: "We support everyone in the community who is struggling by this cost of living crisis.
"The social supermarket is the middle step, imagine you have three steps. The bottom step in the food bank and the top step your average supermarket. We are in the middle trying to support people so they don't fall through the gap."
He says other groups have come to see the social supermarket in action and are looking at trying to replicate the service, with Reverend Kiyaga adding: "Just by last Summer we had reached just over 10,000 meals that went out through this van. Others are looking and asking how do we get this service off the ground?"
The vehicle is known as the 'Yumbus', which means 'you, plus us, equals more' and launched early last year and the location map where it stops can be found here
Project coordinator Lisa Sedgeman added that: "In some ways I'd rather not have a job and this not have to be a service - but it's great that people are coming out and actually using what's being supplied."
For advice from Torbay Council for those struggling with the cost of living click here