Norfolk foodbank says scrapping of meal vouchers is 'piling on the pressure'
It comes after a controversial decision to scrap free school meal vouchers in Norfolk
Norfolk County Council's decision to scrap free school meal vouchers for children over Easter is 'piling pressure on already struggling families'.
That's according to King's Lynn foodbank.
The local authority has said the decision was made to better fund programmes like the 'Hardship Fund' and the 'Big Norfolk Holiday Fun' scheme, that they say "reach the broadest elements of society who may find themselves in difficulty".
"This is just making it harder for people, at an already very difficult time"
But Helen Gilbert who's the project manager for the West Norfolk charity says the rug's been pulled from beneath those who desperately need support: "There's a lot of families across the county and particularly here in the West who rely and have relied on these vouchers and it's made a massive difference to them.
"To have that taken away from them, particularly at quite short notice, makes it quite difficult for people to budget effectively.
"This is just making it harder for people, at an already very difficult time".
She also doesn't believe their activity scheme, 'the Big Norfolk Holiday Fun', goes far enough: "If you work full-time and you'll still on a low, low income job- four hours is not going to help you. Who's going to pick up your child at 1pm?
"Who's going to drop them off at 9am so they can be their at the start, when you're starting work at 9? The impracticalities of it make it difficult for people to access it".
"The crisis is they don't have enough income to meet the rising costs of living"
She told us there's nothing more many can do to keep their head above water: "I'm seeing families coming back time and time again and I'm asking them, is there anything else, is there any other organisations that I can direct you to.
"They've done budgeting course, they have done debt management and all the things that they need to do to get them out of a crisis.
"But the crisis is they don't have enough income to meet the rising costs of living".
Ms Gilbert concluded by say that the decision will pile yet more pressure on them, while their resources are dwindling: "Last month we gave out four and a half tonnes of food and we received just over two tonnes of food in.
"So, there's a marked difference in what's coming in and going out. If food continues to go out in those rates then we're going to struggle.
"At the moment we're not too bad, but in the next couple of months we're going to have to make some difficult decisions".