Food bank steps up support over summer holidays

A food bank charity is warning demand is expected to soar during the coming school summer holidays.

Trussell Trust in Salisbury, works across the UK supporting anyone living in poverty with food parcels and offering advice on managing household incomes.

It said summer will be a "really difficult time for families" and so it is working with Tesco to provide funding for extra food parcels, that can be donated in-store by customers.

Sophie Carre, from the charity said: "Half the households facing hunger include people under the age of 16 and parents are going without food to feed their children."

Ms Carre said families are already facing "unacceptable levels of hardship"

"In the last year food banks in our network gave out 3.1 million emergency food parcels, that's the most they've given out in a year."

"It's unacceptable levels of need and hardship."

She added an all-time high of 19,000 parcels had been provided in Wiltshire and 92,000 across the south west.

Tesco has provided a £1m donation and its customers can purchase special holiday prepacked food donation bags that cost between two and three pounds and pay for them with their shopping.

They will then be passed to a local charity helping to distribute food to families suffering food poverty.

Food bank collection points in supermarkets will be supplemented by specially packed donation bags

"Summer will be a really difficult time for families," Ms Carre said.

"The most important thing to understand is that how dignified we make the process of going to a food bank."

She said all the partners in the scheme "work very hard" to make it "as easy and comfortable as possible" for parents to seek help.

"We know that many parents go without food in order to feed their children," she added.