Cost of living: Kirkham food bank founders facing donations crisis

Carol Thomas and Maureen Fitzpatrick said people cannot afford to donate any more

Two volunteers who run a food bank have said a rise in the cost of living has caused donations to drop and led to them spending £200 a month of their own money to buy supplies and stay open.

Carol Thomas and Maureen Fitzpatrick started the Fylde Food Community Hub in Kirkham during the Covid pandemic and open every Saturday.

Ms Fitzpatrick said people "can't afford to donate any more".

She said they would continue to fund the service for as long as they could.

She said the lack of donations was largely due to the "rising gas bills" and people choosing to donate to other appeals, such as those offering humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

'Very, very distressing'

She said the food bank helped dozens of local people and she had seen 44 families use the service at the weekend.

Ms Thomas said the situation was "frustrating", adding: "The irony is we are not getting the donations, but we are getting more and more people coming through the doors for help."

The volunteers are using their own money to pay for foodbank supplies

She said they would continue to fund the service for as long as possible, but the rising costs meant there was also a limit to how much they could buy.

"Once we've incurred the increase in our fuel bills and the cost of living is going up, it's not going to be feasible for me to take £100 to £200 a month out of my family income," she said.

"Food banks are needed across the Fylde, especially this one where we are," she added.

"We support a lot of families and we need the support to continue."

Ms Fitzpatrick said the thought of "not being able to help those struggling families that we have been helping is very, very distressing".

A recent survey of 1,200 organisations by food charity network FareShare found that 90% of the groups had seen their work impacted by the cost of living crisis.

More than 75% of the organisations who responded to the survey said they had seen an increase in demand.

Among the reasons why people are accessing their services, 65% said it was due to the increasing cost of food whilst 52% said rising energy bills was also a factor.

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