Bishop's Castle food bank sees huge increase in demand

Andy Stelman said he worried about the emotional and mental health of people forced to use the food bank

The operator of a small town's food bank says it has gone from feeding three people a week to almost 100.

Andy Stelman, who set up the service for Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, in April 2020, said he believed rising food prices had pushed many to the service.

One user said: "Everything's going up and our money's not coping with it."

Another said anyone could find themselves in need, warning: "We're all just one decision or one event away."

Mr Stelman described the coronavirus pandemic and rising living costs as a "perfect storm" and said: "All this is coming together at the same time and it's going to cause untold damage and difficulty and distress."

He said support for those in financial difficulty was not "really there" at the moment, adding: "I moved here from Liverpool and I knew exactly what poverty looked like in Liverpool, because I saw it every day.

"When I moved here I assumed a sort of idyllic life where everyone was happy and content, which of course is a nonsense. Rural poverty is hidden."

'Sometimes I just have a cry'

A user of the foodbank told the BBC: "Without [it] I wouldn't have had enough to eat."

A carer for his wife, he added: "There isn't enough help out there. I wish there was.

"Sometimes I just have a cry because it just gets on top of me."

Another resident relying on the provision, who issued the warning that people could be closer to needing a food bank than they realised, told the BBC: "There are people that were probably just ticking by and then when Covid came they found they had nothing to fall back on and they were just instantly in very hard times."

She looks after her three children and says stable, well-paid jobs are difficult to find in the area.

"I feel it's virtually impossible for me to survive," she said.

She added: "What I really want is stability for my children. It's very hard."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]