Stourport foodbank takes hit amid run on yellow ticket goods

Velda McMillan said the service helped about 200 people a week, with queues regularly forming outside

A food sharing project says a rise in people buying reduced items in supermarkets is limiting the donations it receives.

Worcestershire's Food Share Wyre Forest gives produce to about 200 visitors a week, relying on cut-price, yellow-ticketed fruit and veg.

But the cost-of-living hike has meant dwindling donations from stores as more shoppers buy such items, it says.

Project leader Velda McMillan said the scheme was "struggling each day".

Food prices in the UK continued to surge at the fastest rate in nearly 45 years in April, figure released on Thursday showed and although the rate at which grocery prices rose had slowed, it remained at 19.1%.

People think fruit and vegetables are now a luxury, Ms McMillan says

In March, the first figures from the Department for Work and Pensions on food bank use showed about 3% of families in the UK - at least 2.1m people - took advantage of such services in the year to March 2022.

Ms McMillan said the facility, which opened 12 months ago in Stourport, was "very, very busy" with more and more people coming through its door.

The charity also accepts donations from the public but says it is harder to help people with less surplus coming from big stores.

"We're trying to balance it and struggling each day at the moment," she said.

Queues forming outside the facility before opening on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays were normal, she added.

The charity accepts donations from the public but says it is harder to help people with less surplus coming from big stores.

Ms McMillan told the BBC: "There are 30 to 40 [people] on a Tuesday and a Thursday and a hundred on a Sunday.

"On a Sunday, you can't get into the car park, you can't see for queuing; mainly people who are working."

'Fruit a luxury'

She explained: "The supermarkets are reducing more of the stuff and people are buying the yellow label reductions so it has a knock-on effect on the food banks and food pantries.

"If the supermarkets don't give it to us, we can't give it out to people who need it.

"Unfortunately, people can't afford to buy fruit and veg, they think now it's a luxury."