York: Food bank organiser says nurses and paramedics among users

John McGall said his York food bank was "busy beyond words"

Nurses and trainee paramedics are among large numbers of people using a food bank in York, its organiser has said.

John McGall, who runs I Am Reusable, said about 120 people use his service every day, seven days a week.

Mr McGall said "foreign students, asylum seekers and pensioners" also take food parcels from his store, which is often emptied "within an hour".

He said the demand has put "huge pressure" on him to deliver the service.

Mr McGall said the moment his food store was topped up its contents were "gone really quickly"

Mr McGall set up the foodbank in the Leeman Road area of York in 2020.

He stores food in a shed for people struggling with rising costs.

"It started as families in York which we still get, but now it has moved on to nurses, trainee paramedics, a lot of foreign students, refugees, asylum seekers and pensioners.

"I'm shocked by it and find it very upsetting. It's the worst I've seen," he said.

'Poverty everywhere'

Mr McGall said on Christmas Day he sent out 500 food parcels, which he described as a "crazy figure".

He told BBC Radio York: "Through Covid you could put things like beans, soup and pasta in the shed and that would be there for a couple of days. Now the moment food is put in the bank it is taken."

Mr McGall said people using the food bank told him rises in rents, mortgages, utility bills and fuel, left them with "no other choice".

"I find it very upsetting. Everywhere I go I see poverty, with more and more people struggling," he said.