Wolverhampton food bank warns of shortfall and short future without donations
The continuing and growing cost-of-living crisis has been leading to difficult times for both those in need and those providing help.
With rising food and energy prices across the region, more and more people have been accessing food banks in their areas to get essential food and household items and access help and advice.
This increase in demand, however, has led to food banks struggling to meet demand, with many finding that donations coming in are not matching the level of demand going out, and that has caused many to look at how sustainable their service is.
Secret Angels in Wolverhampton operates its food bank at the Park Village Education Centre in Low Hill, where it is open every Tuesday from 10.30am to 12.30pm, having originally started out providing emergency food parcels.
It offers a wide range of fresh fruit, vegetables and non-perishable items and is also a warm space for people to come to and allow volunteers to signpost people to additional targeted support and advice groups. Food bank co-ordinator Keith Berridge said the level of demand had increased dramatically from around 60 people each week to an average of 125 people and said the people coming in had some difficult stories to tell.
He said: “It’s been a real mixed bag, with a lot of people really struggling to pay their household bills at the moment and many not even putting the heat on at home and adults going hungry in favour of their children having meals rather than them.
“A lot can’t afford to pay their rent and it’s becoming a vicious circle for them where they are able to pay their rent, but they are then struggling to buy food.
“In a country as rich as the United Kingdom, we shouldn’t be in a situation where we are needing food banks and I think it’s all appalling.”
Mr Berridge also spoke about the issues the food bank itself was facing, having seen a real squeeze on donations over the last month, and said it felt like people were having to choose between food banks at times.
He said: “It’s getting harder to get donations and we’ve been seeing the squeeze a lot more, plus there have been instances of how supermarkets have been giving to specific food banks, such as the Well and the Good Shepherd.
“It’s getting much more difficult for us as, since we started in April, we’ve relied on donations entirely and there was no cost to us because we were getting donations.
“But we’ve found that over the last few weeks, this has no longer been the case.
“We can only rely on smaller donations, which means we are now having to dip into the Secret Angels funds, which comes from fundraising, and that’s not sustainable as we get no financial support at all.”
Mr Berridge said if the rates kept as they were, the food bank would struggle to run within about six months and said he would like to see more companies helping.
He said: “I would hope that different companies out there would be prepared to offer help to charities and food banks and ensure people can still get help and support going forwards.”
For more details about the support on offer and to offer help or donations to Secret Angels, email info@secretangels.org.uk.
