Rise in number of families and homeless people using Spalding food bank

The number of families seeking help from food banks has risen during the school holidays.

Spalding’s Agape Care food bank has also seen a higher volume of homeless people visiting its base at Haverfield Road’s Lighthouse Church, it can be revealed.

“There has been a rise this August,” said co-ordinator Irene Davies.

“We saw a dip in June when people received their (Government Cost of Living Payment) money. But now we’re in the school holidays we’re seeing families we haven’t seen before.”

Families coming to the food bank are from a ‘variety of backgrounds’ who have found themselves caught up in the cost of living crisis at the time of year when many household face the additional cost of providing more meals for their children, particularly those eligible for free school meals.

“I think the rising price of food (is a factor),” Irene continued.

“Plus it’s the school holidays as well and people have the children at home. If they don’t qualify for free vouchers then it’s testing some to the limit.

“It doesn’t take much for a family (to have financial problems). If your car breaks down you’ve got to fix the car and that can impact.

“A lot of people are struggling with general bills and there are people trying to catch up from the winter and their higher energy bills.”

The volume of homeless people also seeking help has led to Agape Care putting out an appeal for donations of sleeping bags and men’s shoes, to help its users with the luxuries so many can take for granted.

Agape Care provides hot meals on Thursdays, a service they have extended.

“We’re giving out 50 meals on a Thursday now and also doing meals on a Tuesdays now,” Irene continued.

“We used to do soup and a roll on Tuesdays but as it’s the summer we’ve changed that. Our chef’s enthusiastic.

“We’re able to provide almost two meals a week now, along with a lot of the other churches so people are able to get a meal on several days a week now.”

Agape Care isn’t the only food bank to notice a drop in donations, with the public feeling the pinch and supermarkets looking to sell off more stock reaching the end of its sell-by date.

However, kind-hearted locals have bucked the trend in recently.

“This last few weeks we’ve seen a tremendous amount of donations, from the public and supermarkets,” Irene added.

“We are so grateful and we’ve been blown away by the generosity of people from Spalding, even in the midst of the crisis.

“We’re really thankful to them.”