Ludlow food bank demand triples

A food bank has said the number of people asking for its help has tripled.

Ludlow Food Bank in Shropshire said on average it helped 28 people per week, but last week that had shot up to 84.

It is appealing for more donations, particularly of tinned goods like soup and baked beans.

“Our poor stock manager has been running round having to go shopping, trying to get enough food together for all these people,” said food bank co-ordinator Ruth Davies.

“People have been very generous, and we have been getting food from all sorts of places… schools, doctors surgeries, clubs, and we have collection boxes in Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Aldi.

“All those collection boxes still don’t really provide enough, so we have to go out and buy food on a regular basis,” she told the BBC.

The food bank has been running for 20 years, and people are referred to the service, which is open five days a week.

“Mainly we need regular food, baked beans, soup, cereal, tinned meals, tinned meats, tinned fish, the boring stuff,” said Ms Davies.

“Basically tins, we are giving out Christmas goodies as well this year with the food parcels and that is beginning to run low but I believe we have some reverse advent calendars coming in.”

She said some people who they had helped recently had been “managing fine” but had been knocked back by things like relatives being in hospital.

“So they’re having to travel to Shrewsbury, Telford, Hereford, Birmingham, and that just eats away all their money.”

She added that the public putting more food into their collection boxes would help.

“Last week was absolutely mad, and this week looks like its going to be very similar,” she said on Monday.