Feed a Family: West Midlands food banks speak of help campaign gives them

The Feed a Family campaign was relaunched in August as a way of helping food banks across the region to continue to run and help people struggling through the cost of living crisis.

Since the campaign sprang back into life at the end of August, food banks and organisations providing help in Stafford, Wednesbury and Wolverhampton have been among those featured, showcasing the struggles they have had since the crisis began.

In Stafford, House of Bread was one of the first centres featured and has become vital to people struggling to feed themselves or facing difficult decisions about using electricity.

House of Bread has been working with vulnerable and homeless people since 2010 through activities and drop-in sessions providing food, friendship, support and advice.

Resource manager Jack Morris said the campaign had been very important as it had kept the attention on the need for donations.

He said: "I think the campaign is definitely important as it keeps it on everybody's mind and, currently, it is very easy to switch off when you are inundated with bad news.

"But, when you've got something that can inspire something positive, it definitely helps to create that positive reaction, so if it can inspire just one person to buy that extra tube of toothpaste, then that's fantastic.

"I would say there has definitely been an uptick in donations to the static collection points and from people coming by and dropping things off and telling us what they have and what they want to give."

In Wednesbury, the volunteers running Breaking Bread had noticed that as much as has come in and gone out, the exposure they had got from the campaign had helped shine a light on the generosity of people.

Manager Lin Walford said: "We have been run off our feet trying to meet demand and dealing with a lot of distraught people, but we're getting a lot of help from harvest festivals, which are far better than we thought they would be.

"The campaign has had an impact as we're getting more monetary donations in and I think we are getting a bit more exposure from being in the paper.

"I'm really hoping that whatever is going on, especially with the Express & Star's help, will put us out there more and keep us in the forefront as we are relying on donations to be able to keep going."

In Wolverhampton, the Elias Mattu Foundation has been a community champion since being founded in 2019 in memory of the late mayor of Wolverhampton.

The foundation has provided food and support to dozens of families in the city, as well as proving school meals to children, and founder Asha Mattu said the campaign had kept the foundation in the public eye at times when it had struggled.

She said: "We have had donations come in after we were featured, but what keeps happening is that donations are coming in, then stopping, and while the donations can stop, the need doesn't and is growing every day.

"We get referrals from all over the city and are having more than 10 extra every day, so this campaign is priceless for telling the community that if we're going to continue to feed the community, we need help."