Grimsby foodbank fears the summer holidays may leave some families struggling

Rock Foundation says there's high demand but fewer donations

Grimsby foodbank fears the summer holidays may leave some families struggling
Author: Andy MarshPublished 24th Jul 2023

A Grimsby foodbank has told us they fear the summer holidays may leave some families stretched to breaking point due to the cost of living crisis.

The Rock Foundation is giving out over 8 hundred parcels a week.

A drop in donations has left them wondering how they'll cope with demand over the next 6 weeks.

UK wide figures show around 1 in three food parcels go to children.

Rock Foundation says the cost of living crisis is making it difficult to help everyone who comes to them.

We're getting a lot of people now coming to the foodbank on lower wages

They already operate a strict vetting system to ensure parcels only go to the most needy but they're still seeing large numbers urgently wanting help.

We spoke to Pam Hodge from Rock Foundation.

She told us: "We're getting a lot of people now coming to the foodbank on lower wages."

"They just cannot make ends meet."

"It's not just people on benefits - it's all walks of life."

"It's heartbreaking to see, if I go down on the days the foodbank is on and just see the people queuing down the streets."

"You think they've got to be desperate to do that."

"The cost of living and mortgage rates and everything else going up are having an effect on us whereas people had spare cash and could donate to us - a lot of people haven't got that cash now and aren't able to donate like they used to do."

We've had pensioners coming in

"Everything that comes in is going out, we haven't got any surplus and that's a concern for us really".

"We've had pensioners coming in - people just on low incomes."

"They may be on minimum wage."

"Again rent and mortgages and food costs have gone up."

"I know utilities are supposed to be coming down but I think it's all had a big knock on affect on all of us."

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