'It's scary to see families at soup kitchen'

Beccy Tyler said the soup kitchen was serving about a 100 people every day from a food van parked in the city centre car park

A soup kitchen feeding about 1,900 people a month said it was "scary" to see the number of new faces they were helping.

Peterborough Soup Kitchen (PSK) provides a chat, a hot meal and drink from a van at a city centre car park each day and said demand had gone up "significantly".

Beccy Tyler, secretary of PSK, said the volunteer-led organisation was serving an increased number of families with young children each week and called it "heartbreaking".

Peterborough City Council said it had seen a 40% rise in the number of homeless people.

The Shelter charity said the number of people who were homeless in the East of England had increased by 20% in the past 12 months

The council said about 70 people were coming forward each week. This has gone up from about 51 people in 2021/2022.

It said it faced a budget gap of more than £20m next year to pay for services such as homeless and temporary accommodation, adult social services and health and children's services.

The Shelter charity said the number of people homeless in the East of England had increased by 20% in the last 12 months.

In Peterborough, one in every 230 people was without a home or living in temporary accommodation, according to the charity's data.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government called the figures "shocking", adding that it had committed £1bn funding to support homelessness services and would be "building the social and affordable homes we need".

'It can happen to anybody'

The Peterborough Soup Kitchen said it had been serving at least 100 people on a daily basis recently.

Between October 2023 to October 2024, about 1,900 people were served a month. This went up from 1,270 in the previous year.

The charity relies on its 165 volunteers who work across 28 teams as well as donations to keep running.

Ms Tyler said: "The number of new faces we are seeing every day is scary. We wish we could cater for more people but we can't afford to do it.

"The stories that you hear - it can happen to anybody.

"It is a huge range of people that come to our van. It is heartbreaking to see it."