A SURGE in Cumbrian foodbank clients has reached a 'perfect storm' of increased demands and drop in food donations due to the cost of living crisis. 

This comes as regional statistics for the Northwest were released by Greater Manchester Poverty Action, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to reduce poverty in their area, via a survey of 2,700 UK residents.

Greater Manchester Poverty Action said limited access to financial support has been a problem for a number of years, with many struggling to find and understand monetary solutions that they are entitled to.

The organisation said that through their research, visiting food banks is apparently the new norm, but many say they need other types of support.

Foodbanks are recording higher figures of users, with one receiving visits from pensioners in recent weeks.

Carol Donaldson, church leader at the Salvation Army in Penrith, which operates a popular food bank, said: “We have seen a rise in people coming to our foodbank.

“Those that are coming are of a varied age range, they are not all just families, there a mixture of families and single people.

“We have, recently, seen more pensioners coming, over 70s, in the last few months.

“We work with volunteers, who are all amazing, and they all work various days and times.

“We are still looking for more volunteers, and often we have had people who have just been popping in and saying that they wanted to volunteer.”

Despite the charitable spirit of Penrith shining through in this example, it’s not getting any easier.

“We are finding it harder to meet the demand as food prices are going up, and donations have declined as a result,” she said.

Major Donaldson also said that they are experiencing shortages of food that they are in particular need for – tinned meats.

The Salvation Army foodbank works partly in conjunction with a nearby supermarket scheme called ‘pick a pack’.

It involves supermarket stocking bags with items requested by foodbanks to fill gaps.

These bags are then bought by shoppers for £3 and sent to drop-off points for the foodbank, but because of the increase in cost for these products, particularly tinned meats as Major Donaldson said, they’re running low.

The foodbank runs on a referral basis like most foodbanks do, but they are also doing more things to help support families and people in need.

The concern is that demand will rise in the coming weeks as the summer holidays are just around the corner, and families relying on free school meals may be out of pocket.

However, Salvation Army in Penrith said they are running coffee mornings and lunch events for free throughout the summer, and anyone who needs other help is encouraged to get in touch.

Meanwhile, in Appleby, where the Upper Eden Foodbank is run, an unexpected reduction very recently in visitors has left volunteers perplexed, despite seeing a general rise in numbers since last year.

“We have seen a huge increase and we are still seeing an increase year on year, but it has been quieter in the last six to eight weeks, which is slightly surprising – maybe it will increase during the summer holidays though.

“There is a lot of support out there, I think, and there are groups getting together to help out families with free or cheap food and meals for children, at least that's what I’ve seen,” a spokesperson from the foodbank said.

They added: “We operate differently to any other foodbank that I know of.

“It is incredibly small – it’s just in a cupboard in the church in Appleby.

“We take the food to the clients, or they can pick it up from three points around the area, but clients can’t come in and pick up food.”

Perhaps due to their smaller clientele, they’ve been operating fine so far.

“We haven’t had to get more volunteers; we are just really blessed in that way.

“People are so generous, but when it has been super busy, we have had to go out ourselves to shops and buy extra food.”

They said with the recent increase they are seeing more families turn up for food, but generally serve a mix of people.

In terms of an increase, they said it came mostly during the recent winter months, where they saw roughly a 50 to 60 per cent rise in people using the foodbank.

They imagine, however, that other, larger, foodbanks will be struggling come the holidays.

Back to the survey, it is reported that in the UK some of the lowest-income households with dependents or children were worryingly the most affected.

Nearly a quarter of people getting by on £25,000 to £35,000 per year as a total household income described the process of seeking support as laden with ‘red tape’ and ‘confusing.’

Across the UK more than half of the 2,700 people surveyed believed if they were faced with financial hardship there would be ‘no support’ for their situation – a rising figure in the northwest, as 68 per cent said they didn’t know where to turn for government financial support.

Graham Whitham, chief executive of Greater Manchester Poverty Action, said: “We believe when tackling poverty and financial hardship in the UK we need to provide cash-first support to ensure we maximise household incomes.

“Foodbanks aren’t the solution; they are a sticking plaster for the problem and ultimately shouldn’t need to exist.

“The survey results back up what many foodbanks have told us.

“Too often agencies are sending people to foodbanks because they lack knowledge about the financial and other support available to people who are struggling with money.”