Inside city food bank helping people as cost of living crisis deepens
RISING PRICES PUTTING
VOLUNTEERS at a Hull food bank, which served almost one user a minute in one morning this week, said price hikes are squeezing their resources as users spoke of their hardship.
Volunteers at the food bank in Spring Bank’s Seventh Day Adventist Church told LDRS rising prices for supplies and shortages were piling on pressure as demand for weekly parcels soars.
Two users also said they were being squeezed and one said her 22-year-old son was stuck on Universal Credit after losing his job from the Kickstart youth employment scheme.
It comes as the food bank served 66 users in one hour and ten minutes on Tuesday after volunteers opened to find long queues of people waiting.
Volunteer Martin Ginnelly said numbers had been averaging between 70 and 90 every Tuesday, the day the food bank opens, amid spiralling living costs.
Volunteer Addai Acheampomg said rising prices were also squeezing the food bank itself, forcing them to make funds go further while struggling to get hold of some items.
The comments also come as data from the Trussell Trust showed users at their Hull and East Riding food banks handed out 16,252 parcels in the year up to March.
The organisation, separate to the Spring Bank food bank, handed out 6,218 parcels in Hull compared to 5,208 up to March 2021, despite use dropping nationally following a coronavirus peak.
Users of the Spring Bank food bank are given weekly parcels with bread, beans, potatoes, spaghetti, onions, oats, milk, cereal and washing powder when they can offer it.
Cathy Smith, 51, said she had turned off all her appliances except her fridge, but was still struggling to afford power.
The food bank user said: “I get Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and I was first assessed in 2019 just before the pandemic began.
“I was getting by OK before, but it’s gas and electricity that’s hitting me now.
“I tried to ask my energy company for some help with payments, but there was nothing they could do.
“Recently I topped up my electricity with £40 and £20 of that was gone within a week.
“I live with my daughter who’s 20, she’s been on Universal Credit after she had gallstones removed, but she hasn’t been right since.
“My son’s 22 and he got a job at a place where they look after dogs on Hessle Road through the Kickstart scheme.
“He loved the job, but he was only there for six months before they told him they had to let him go.
“I went with him and asked if they could take him back because he really enjoyed it, they said he could volunteer if he wanted to.
“He was getting more than £800 a month for that, but now he’s on Universal Credit, it’s a big fall in his income.”
Another user said she was struggling to afford bills after moving into a flat following five months homeless when she left an abusive relationship.
The 56-year-old said: “My expartner who I lived with for 18 years physically abused me.
“One day he said I had to leave, but I had nowhere to go. In hindsight it was the best thing he could have done so I don’t have to be there anymore.
“Today’s my first day using the food bank, I didn’t know there was one here until I saw the queue outside.
“It’s been a struggle for me recently, I’m just trying to get back on my feet and stock up the essentials I need.
“The things I got from the food bank will help me to get by for a couple of days, I live alone at the moment.
“I’m on ESA, I’ve been unemployed since 1987 because even though I’m supposed to be an occupational therapist I have acute anxiety and depression so I can’t work.”
Mr Ginnelly said users of the food bank were typically living alone and were unemployed.
He added recent price rises had seen the profile change, with more families and people in work asking for parcels.
The retired volunteer said: “A lot of people we’re serving are worried right now, one person who’s working came in and asked for a parcel just to top themselves up and keep going.
“I feel sorry for the families and the young people trying to make ends meet. They’re the ones who seem to be most worried at the moment, they’re struggling to provide for the people who depend on them.”
Mr Acheampomg said the food bank itself was also dogged by rising living costs and shortages and volunteers were seeing more people coming for parcels.
He said: “When we first started doing the food bank it wasn’t as busy, but we’re seeing the number of users rise week by week.
“It’s been rising quite quickly particularly from this year, it’s getting worse.
“It’s the cost of living and we’re also serving a lot of homeless people as well, as well as people referred to us from the job centre.
“Some of the local businesses have been very supportive, but we’re also struggling with supplies at the moment.
“Everything’s getting more expensive. The price of milk cartons went up from 55p to 65p recently. And yesterday we struggled to get spaghetti, we went to the supermarket we normally use and they didn’t have any so we had to go round the others until we could find some.”