A demand forfood banks islikely to rise

It comes during a week where the Church of England has published a critical report on the spread of food banks across the UK.

Rye Town Council voted on Monday to donate £250 to the food bank at Rye Baptist Church.

New branches at Rye and Battle have come as a result of the demand to distribute food to the wider Rother area, a commitment that was undertaken being linked to funding from ESCC and RDC.

Foodbank Manager Simon Earl said: “2014 has seen an increase in the number of people accessing our services.

“As we move towards Christmas and the colder winter months we anticipate greater demand.

It is certainly going to be interesting to see what impact the two satellite centres have on addressing the needs of those in crisis.

“Compared with the first six months of 2013 we have seen an increase of 20% in the first six months of this year. This increase is largely due to the effects of the government’s policy on the changes to welfare benefit payments, especially the length of time benefit changes take to be actioned.

“However, the increase in donation has not been so significant, which has meant that in several months during the last year we have been giving out more food than has been donated.

“To fill this gap we have used up some of the stock which was built up in our early days, but we do from time to time have to buy food.”

“For those who don’t know how the Foodbank works, food that is donated by the public is given out to those who live in the local area who find themselves in a temporary crisis.

“The package of food the clients receive has three balanced meals for three days within it; the amount of food given out varies with the number of people in the family unit.

“I would also like to thank all those who have over the last year donated food through our many drop bins which are spread across the churches and shops.”