Warwickshire foodbank forced to buy food as demand rises and donations drop
The Trussell Trust says a record three million food parcels were handed out in the last year
A Warwickshire foodbank has called on the government to do more to ease growing pressure on foodbanks, as they gain more clients and see numbers of donations dwindling.
The Trussell Trust said in the year ending March 2024, 3,121,404 parcels were distributed by foodbanks in its network, with 1,444,096 of those going to children.
Andy Bower, Operations Manager at Warwick District Foodbank covering Leamington, Kenilworth and Warwick said: "The Trussell Trust have been talking about the need for anyone to use a foodbank for at least the last five years and all I've seen is an exponential growth in the number of the number of clients coming through our doors - we've seen a 19% increase in the last year."
The Trussell Trust has called on political parties to commit to tackling the problem, as foodbanks increasingly rely on people's donations to meet growing demand.
Andy Bower said: "Foodbanks are effectively part of the welfare state now, but they should be operated through the government and funded by the government. We receive no government funding, we rely entirely on donations.
"We're seeing more and more clients every week and what's very concerning is we're seeing student nurses and junior doctors turning up at the foodbank because they can't make ends meet."
Andy Bower said the Foodbank has had to start buying food from supermarkets on a regular basis due to a lack of food donations - something it has never had to do before.
The Government said its cost of living support package had prevented 1.3 million people falling into poverty in 2022-23 and reiterated that it was "raising the National Living Wage, cutting taxes and driving down inflation while investing billions through our Back to Work Plan".