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Food banks are seeing new faces every single day, with one recording an increase of 161 per cent in referrals in the last two years, as many struggle to afford life in Britain.
Demand has skyrocketed in recent months, but donations are dwindling as soaring energy costs, food price inflation and growing poverty leave Britons out of pocket.
The Southend Foodbank, which operates six days a week, is currently spending £10,000 a month on food to make up parcels, and is handing out three tonnes of soup cans, packet mash potato, long-life milk, and rich tea biscuits a week.
On Tuesday, the Express visited the food bank to experience the busyness of the winter period and hear some of the agonising stories from within.
Volunteer of more than 10 years, Ros Sanders, 72, said: “We are seeing more people relying on the food bank than ever before.
“Just before Christmas, we were seeing around 80 guests come through our doors in a two-hour session but this time last year, it was probably around 19 or 20 people.”
Ros, who has lived in Southend all her life, said that they are now seeing couples, professionals, such as NHS workers and schoolteachers, and young people seeking their help. And this “certainly didn’t used to happen,” she said.
Volunteer Ros Sanders has been helping out regularly at the Southend Foodbank for more than 10 years (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Once a person in need or a ‘guest’, as the food bank like to call them, has been referred, they can attend one of the sessions, such as the Tuesday lunchtime session at Belle Vue Baptist Church in the city, and collect a ticket.
While they are waiting to be called, guests can make the most of the warmth, a comfy chair, a hot drink, and a treat like a nice biscuit or a slice of cake.
One of the users, who the Express spoke to on the day, said it was comforting to be surrounded by and have the opportunity to talk to people in a similar situation to themselves.
The Trussell Trust, the organisation behind the Southend Foodbank, which operates more than 1,400 food banks across the country, is planning to hand out in excess of a million emergency food parcels this winter.
It comes as inflation surprisingly rose to four per cent in December, putting even more pressure on cash-strapped Britons who are on their knees.
Shockingly, the number of food banks outnumber McDonald’s outlets by nearly two to one. According to data, there are more than 2,500 food banks across the UK and around 1,500 McDonald’s restaurants.
The Southend food bank opened in November of 2013 but Cass Francis, Communications and Campaigns Co-ordinator, said they are “literally desperate”.
She said: “We are giving away so much food, but donations just can’t keep up. We are really scared, and I am really worried about my volunteers as they are nearly making themselves sick, they are working so hard.
Guests queuing outside of the food bank in Southend earlier this week (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster )
Nikki Laoye, 43, who is a relatively new volunteer at the food bank, said: “I have only been a volunteer here for a few months, but my eyes have been opened to so much.
“People can come in emotional and crying, needing advice, support, or just a listening ear, and this is become more common, and the cost-of-living crisis continues to worsen.”
Cass, along with other food bank organisers in the UK, who are facing the impossible, are urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to extend the Household Support Fund past March.
The fund, provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), gives those who qualify, help towards food and essential items.
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Volunteers are close to burn out due to the amount of hours they are giving up (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
New volunteer Nikki Laoye (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster )
It also allows councils to help food banks with donations and, in the Southend Food Bank’s case, arrange for a Citizens Advice Bureau representative to sit in sessions to help with referrals and offer advice.
Cass added: “Southend Foodbank will be writing to Southend City Council and Rochford District Council to urge them to write to the government to ask that the Chancellor include an extension of the Household Support Fund in the March 2024 budget, and we are encouraging other charities and local organisations to do the same.”
Joseph Rowntree Foundation senior economist Rachelle Earwaker, said: “Price rises have outstripped increases in benefits which won’t increase again until April, and, even then, won’t make up the difference.
“Around 6.6 million low-income households (56 per cent) reported not having enough money for either food or heating their home between May and October 2023. Around 2.4 million households (20 per cent) didn’t have enough money for both food and heating.”
Andrew Forsey, national director at Feeding Britain, said: “These figures provide a chilling reminder that, for all too many people in our country, the costs of food and other essentials are unaffordable.
“The leaders of the three largest parties in Westminster have all said they want to reduce the need for food banks.
“We now need policies to back up those words, starting with a renewal of the Household Support Fund in April. Otherwise, many more people will fall into the abyss of hunger and destitution.”
Halide Kalfaoglu, benefits expert at Turn2us, said: “The Household Support Fund is a lifeline for the people we support who continue to be severely affected by rising living costs.
“Scrapping it would only intensify pressure on local authorities and overwhelmed charities already helping with essentials like food, clothing, and utilities.
“The Government must extend it and create a long-term strategy for local crisis support in England.”
The DWP has been contacted for comment.
‘I used to be homeless and I’ve come here today because I’m struggling’
Chris Soper, who spoke to the Express about why he was at the food bank on Tuesday (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Chris Soper, who has lived in Southend his whole life, has only just found his feet again after being homeless for two years, which he described as being the “hardest time” of his life.
The 51-year-old said he “relies” on the food bank and visits regularly to get a parcel full of essentials, which lasts him around three days.
He was one of 34 people to visit the food bank on Tuesday, all desperate for help as inflation and energy bills soar, but benefits and wages can’t keep up.
Chris said: “I’ve come here today because I’m struggling, with my benefits and everything else, and I’ve only just got a place of my own after being homeless for two years through the charity HARP (Southend’s Homeless Charity).
“I rely on the food bank quite a bit at the moment, it’s really hard out there.
“Everything has been going up in price in recent months, I’ve really noticed a difference, especially with food.”
The food bank isn’t just a place where Chris collects his weekly food parcel, it’s a place where he can come to keep warm for a few hours, enjoy a warm drink and a treat, and talk to other people who are in a similar position to him.
He added: “I don’t know what I would do without the food bank. I try and get down here every week, or every couple of weeks if the weather is bad.
“Everyone here is really friendly, it’s a very good system, and you’re pretty much in and out, but it shouldn’t be this way here in the UK.”
Cass Francis, Communications & Campaigns Co-ordinator at Southend Foodbank
I’ve just looked back at 2023 and we gave enough food out to feed 20,000 people. That is a record-breaking amount of food we have given out. The problem that we have is that we keep breaking our own records, and I’m starting to sound like a broken record by saying we have broken our own record over and over again.
When we look back at the amount of referrals we have received, this has gone up by 161 per cent in the last two years and we are always seeing new faces, sadly, here at Southend Foodbank. In 2023, we had around 8,000 referrals, the year before, it was looking more like 3,000 referrals, which are terrifying statistics.
The donations we have here, although it may look like we have a lot, is a drop in the ocean. We are giving out three and a half tonnes of food a week. We have a persistent churn of food coming in and going out.
As demand increases, I’m worried about the pressure this is putting on us and our volunteers. They work tirelessly, some for many years, to help out here. We have had volunteers work themselves so hard, it has nearly made them ill before, but if they don’t do it, who will.
What would really help us, and many other food bank out around the country, is if Chancellor Jeremy Hunt extended the Household Support Fund past March. It is a fund that councils can use to give vulnerable people in the local area micro-grants of money to help them through particularly tough times. It can also be used to help charities like us with donations and funding things like us having a representative from the Citizens Advice Bureau at our food bank sessions to help with food bank vouchers, referrals, issues with energy bills and any other issues they may be facing in the current climate.
We are urging, begging, other charities, like us, to write to their local councils to ask them to join forces with them and campaign for Mr Hunt to extend the Household Support Fund past March, before it is too late for many.
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