Volunteers told to stay home in food bank shortage

Gavin Kibble founded Coventry Foodbank in 2011

Volunteers at food banks in Coventry have been told not to come in for a week due to a lack of donations.

Gavin Kibble, who runs 14 food banks in the city, said there was not enough food for volunteers to sort.

He said food banks were facing a "double crisis" as demand for services continued to rise, while the cost of living affected people's ability to donate.

Coventry Foodbank, which started up in 2011, currently feeds about 800 people per week and volunteers are organising a walkathon to raise funds.

"We’ve actually asked our volunteers to not come in because we have no food for them to sort," Mr Kibble said.

"It really is that serious."

'Double crisis'

This time last year the charity was feeding about 500 people each week.

This year, "it’s risen to about 800 so far," he said.

"That comes coupled with the fact that, because there’s less disposable income in people’s pockets, the general public are unable to buy as much food and donate it to foodbanks.

"So we have a double crisis at the moment."

Rather than relying on donations, Mr Kibble said the charity was also having to buy in food to make sure there were enough supplies.

On 29 May, he is planning to embark on a 20-mile (32km) "foodbankathon" - walking between 15 food banks to raise money for the cause.

According to official figures, about 3% of families in the UK - at least 2.1 million people - used a food bank in the year to March 2022.

He said he hoped the shortage was "a temporary blip", "but we do need to raise awareness of the problem," he added.