New Walsall food bank to open following £1,500 grant

Emergency food parcels will be handed out and vulnerable people will be directed to services by volunteers working from Pelsall Methodist Church.

The food bank is due to be set up in August after the Brownhills, Pelsall, Rushall and Shelfield Area Panel approved £1,500 of funding towards the scheme.

Val Asprey, project manager for the Walsall North food bank, said: "We are extremely grateful for the funding.

"There is a need for it in the WS4 area. Potentially it could help hundreds of people.

"There are many people suffering from difficulties who are in crisis."

It is intended that the food bank will open two days a week for a couple of hours.

It will run in line with the guidelines set by the Trussell Trust, a charity which co-ordinates a nationwide network of food banks.

Volunteers will be trained to work with vulnerable people and to signpost them to various agencies where they can access help.

Families and individuals in need will be able to get emergency food parcels.

Ms Asprey said: "They will be given a voucher and can exchange it for three days of emergency food. The food they get is planned by a dietician.

"The £1,500 will allow us to set up but we will need to keep fundraising. Donations of food or money to the food bank will be welcome.

"We were hoping to open at the Methodist church in July but there is some heating work being done so it will now be early August.

"The main reason people get into crisis is debt. It's very difficult today with zero hour contracts. 99 per cent of people we are dealing with will be in work."

Councillor Richard Worrall, vice-chair of the area panel, has welcomed the project.

He said: "The grant was approved by the area panel. I'm so pleased they have got the support and couldn't think of a more worthy cause.

"There are an awful lot of people suffering real hardship.

"The Walsall North food bank's area of coverage will be Brownhills, Pelsall, Rushall, Shelfield and High Heath."

Donations of food or money can be taken to Pelsall Methodist Church, in Chapel Street.

Recent figures showed that across the country more than 900,000 adults and children received three days emergency food and support from Trussell Trust food banks in the last 12 months - more than double the year before.

Walsall North MP David Winnick branded the figures a 'disgrace' and said that the Government should recognise the desperate situation facing thousands of families.

The Trussell Trust partners with churches and communities to open new food banks nationwide.

It has launched more than 420 food banks and aims for every town to have one.

In 2013-14, Trussell Trust food banks fed 913,138 people nationwide.

Of those helped, 330,205 were children.

For more information, call 01722 580180 or email enquiries@trusselltrust.org