Foodbanks highlight families’ struggles over Easter holidays
The Swindon Food Collective serves 2,500 children a week
Foodbanks are highlighting the additional strain the holidays are putting on families in Swindon.
With children out of school for two weeks during the Easter break, those who rely on free school meals are struggling.
Among rising household bills, they are also expecting an increase in demand past the bank holidays this year.
David Cryer, chair of trustees at the Swindon Food Collective, told Greatest Hits Radio : “Water bills have just gone up by 25% on the year, alongside all the other increases in energy, et cetera. The majority of the people that we work with are on social security payments which have increased for them by 1.7%. So, it just doesn't add up.”
The Swindon Food Collective runs eleven foodbanks across the town which serve around 10,000 people a week.
There is no certain type of person who consult foodbanks, according to Mr. Cryer.
Some people have just been made redundant which leads to them struggling financially while others are refugees or asylum seekers – and a quarter of those who come in are children.
This is why Mr. Cryer says, they always do “something special” over the holidays.
“Whether it's Easter or Christmas, we do something special, which are the hampers. So, we actually are doing a fantastic Easter hamper this year and it's probably the biggest and best one we've done. It's got absolutely everything in there that you'd expect in terms of staples and we also do Easter eggs, so some treats for the children”, he explained.
To be able to support Swindon’s communities, they have to rely on donations.
With the cost of living crisis, however, less and less donations are coming in as people are struggling to stay afloat themselves.
“We are quite low. We never go very low because what we do is build up stock. We also build up reserves of finances and therefore if we're very low on stock, we simply go out and buy stock from the commercial market in order to make sure that there is no gap when the demand peaks.
“So, we're okay at the moment. But we need more donations, we always do”, added Mr. Cryer.