New Salisbury Foodbank location to open in city centre
It will be the second to open in a little over a month in Salisbury
A new food bank is set to open in the centre of Salisbury next month, amid a growing number of people needing support to afford food and essentials.
Salisbury Foodbank, which runs across seven locations, opened its seventh outlet in Fovant, last week.
The team at the food bank now plans to open a new location at the Salisbury Methodist Church, on St Edmund's Church St, in February.
Organisers say it's in response to a growing number of people needing support to pay for essentials - particularly working people.
Although opening times haven't been decided, they plan to have it open on Saturdays so people can more easily access food outside working hours.
Sam Lush is a coordinator at the food bank and says December was a very busy month.
"In December, we had our busiest time ever where we fed just over 900 people and our need is growning month on month.
"We need to open more outlets so that we can give the support that is needed and cope with the demand."
Donations of dog and cat food are also being given out now in partnership with the Dogs Trust, for those struggling to afford feeding their pets.
In December, the dog welfare charity announced it was opening a dog food bank at its rehoming centre in Newton Tony.
Sam Lush, from Salisbury Foodbank, said it made sense to partner with the charity.
"We've always given out cat and dog food, we get it donated occasionally from the public and pet food stores, however, we couldn't cope with the demand we're now seeing.
"We saw the Dogs Trust had opened a dog food bank, which is a brilliant idea, however they're all the way out in Newton Tony. They have the problem that they have lots of donated dog food but not everyone can access it.
"So we decided that now we go over to them every other week, we collect food from the Dogs Trust and bring it to our outlets to give to our clients. But also everybody can phone up the Dogs Trust and say they need to access the dog food bank and if they can't get to Newton Tony those people can come to us."
The donated items from the Dogs Trust will be brought to three food bank locations - St Pauls, St Michaels and Amesbury.
A full list of food bank locations and opening times can be found on the Salisbury Foodbank Facebook page.