Weymouth Foodbank spending £2,000 a week to "feed the community"
More than 2,500 people have visited the Weymouth Foodbank in the last eight months
Weymouth Foodbank has seen a 75% increase in the number of visitors compared to last year with 4,573 people picking up food in the last eight months.
People who run Weymouth Foodbank believe the cost-of-living crises along with rising inflation is largely to blame.
Traditionally, foodbanks were supposed to be “a short-term fix”, giving an individual time to sort themselves out when they have suffered a financial shock, such as redundancy, but that seems to have changed now.
Jean-Paul Dervley, Chair of Weymouth Foodbank, told us: “In the past of a food bank, we'd have people come in for five or six weeks, but now there are some people that without our help would be going hungry.”
In the past, most of the stock would have been donated but with the cost-of-living affecting everyone and there being such an increase in demand, Weymouth Foodbank is having to spend £2,000 a week on food to feed the community.
Mr Dervley said: “People are generous, but the demand is going up so much, we're now having to think about how things can work going forward.”
Although, there are government grants to help support foodbanks, these are “coming too late."
According to recent data, 3,000 people in Weymouth and Portland live in extreme food insecurity.
Mr Dervley added: “Some people are feeling a little defeated because they just don't see any hope for how they can get out of this situation.”
Not only is demand even greater than it was year ago, but rampant inflation means the pound is buying less, now calls on the government to lower inflation are intensifying.
A recent study found that last year, the cost of the items in a standard parcel (enough to feed one person for three days) came to £24.78. Today an equivalent food parcel costs £34.11, an increase of £9.33 or nearly 38%.