Caerphilly foodbank gives out Christmas hampers for those in need
A food bank in South Wales says the cost of living crisis is still having a big impact on people being able to buy food
A food bank in South Wales says the cost of living crisis is still having a big impact on people being able to buy food.
Ryan Hyde organises a food bank in Caerphilly, he says he see families needing support more and more:
"We have a big team of volunteers who are generally serving the food bank as we normally would as we get a lot of clients at Christmas time.
"We've also got a big team of people from a local college and they're helping us with our Christmas hampers.
"This is something we do each year and we provide hampers to families and individuals who are going to be struggling at Christmas time.
"We reach out to our partners and ask them if they're aware of anybody that they're helping right now that they think will be struggling specifically at Christmas.
"So the idea of the hampers then is that we provide a Christmas dinner in a hamper, to the bets of our ability."
Food banks in the Trussell Trust network in Wales distributed 187,400 (187,458) emergency food parcels in 2023/24.
This is the highest number of parcels that the network has ever distributed in a single year.
Over 68,500 (68,594) parcels for children and 118,800 (118,864) food parcels for adults were distributed over this period.
The number of parcels provided for children across Wales fell slightly from the record levels seen in the previous year (-2%) but remain significantly higher than the number distributed just five years ago in 2018/19 (64%).
The number of parcels for adults saw a 3% increase on the previous year.
The Welsh Government has said Families and individuals across Wales struggling with the cost of food will receive support this winter through £1.7m of additional funding.
They say this funding "will provide help to those most in need and back community projects working to prevent and tackle food poverty in the longer term".