West Northumberland Food Bank demand increases amid cost of living crisis

The West Northumberland Food Bank, based in Hexham, supports families and individuals across the county - spanning from Prudhoe to Kielder.

In the last six months, the food bank has helped as many households as they did in the year before that, says project manager Sam Gilchrist.

"That equates to 868 households," said Sam. "And that was a pandemic year, so we had all these people on furlough, we had kids off school. So we should be back to normal. We're certainly not.

"Things are incredibly busy."

READ MORE: Record number of Northumberland children living in poverty

Picture: West Northumberland Food Bank.

40 per cent of calls they receive are from people who have never used a food bank before, Sam added.

"What is worrying is that most of them are in work," she said. "What we're picking up on is that these people have just about managed to weather the storm of the pandemic and they were just about coping until the beginning of April with the fuel hikes and the cost of living. And they've now fallen off that economic cliff edge."

Last month, Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis warned he was "virtually out of tools" to help people deal with the cost of living crisis, and Sam said they are also now running out of ideas.

"We can signpost and give people advice, and make sure they've got the right benefits in place, but once you've done all that, people simply don't have enough income compared to what's going out. And that includes people who are in work," she said.

"We talk to people about increasing their hours, and they say they would love to increase their hours, but they can't afford the petrol to get there. It doesn't make it worth it, even if extra hours are available.

"We're meeting people who as soon as their benefits or wages are coming in, they're literally in one hand and out of the other."

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As well as providing food for people, West Northumberland Food Bank also has its own hardship fund, which has enabled them to buy heating oil for people or give them fuel vouchers.

"But all that's going to do is put a little bit of a sticking plaster over it until the next month," said Sam.

"This big group of people that we're seeing - and this is right across the country - that have never had to come to a food bank before, we don't want them still coming a year down the line.

"We're not talking about those most vulnerable people of society who we will help year in, year out, such as pensioners, people with young children, people with disabilities, and people with long-term mental health conditions.

"You expect to be looking after people like that for a few years, but not these new people. We should be able to get them through a couple of months and then things get better for them. But that's the worry, will things get better?

"My guess is that we're going to see another huge spike in October, and it's not that far off. We'll get through the summer, and then we'll be bracing ourselves for the big tsunami of debt and poverty. It's very worrying."

Sam said she doesn't want people to feel ashamed about asking for help.

"This is what we're here for, we're here to help people."