Food bank 'braced' for another difficult winter

A food bank is bracing itself for a difficult winter as figures showed a sharp increase in the number of families needing support in the West Midlands.

Jane Baker, manager at Newcastle-Staffs Foodbank in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, said it urgently needed donations to continue helping those in need during the colder months.

Her plea came as charity the Trussell Trust revealed more than 61,000 emergency food parcels were delivered to people across the region between December 2024 and February 2025.

Ms Baker said: "We are bracing ourselves for another difficult winter and are urgently seeking the public's support so we can continue to help people facing hunger."

Last winter saw a 27% increase in demand for food parcels compared to pre-pandemic levels, the charity said, and also included 22,000 parcels for children, which was 19% more than in 2019/2020.

"We are seeing so many working families, carers, and pensioners walking through our doors," Ms Baker said. "This isn't right."

She said food banks were not the answer to the issue of food poverty but were a lifeline for thousands of people "facing hunger and hardship".

"We're determined to continue providing vital support this winter but we urgently need donations or we might not be here next year," she said.

"Donations are down, while costs are up. When people's shelves are empty, our food banks can't be."

According to the Trussell Trust, food banks in the West Midlands spent an estimated £315,000 on food as donations struggled to keep up with the demand.

Sophie Carre, the charity's director of engagement at Trussell, said: "Christmas should be a time of joy and celebration, but this winter too many people will be struggling just to get by.

"Tens of thousands of families  will be forced to turn to a food bank for the first time as they are left exhausted, isolated and without enough money to live on."