Foodbanks across the city need people to donate this Christmas as demand increases

Foodbanks in Portsmouth and the surrounding area have seen a huge increase of people needing to access their facilities and services as they have to chose between eating and heating their homes – but as numbers increase, the amount of donations that are being received are decreasing dramatically.

A lot of foodbanks have now resorted to having to buy stock in order to keep opening and offering support.

Liz Ascua, manager at the Beacon Foodbank, Havant, said: ‘We have seen that with the cost of living, the demand is going up but the donations have been going down so we are having to buy in. We have had lots of money donations come in and we have never really needed them until now.

‘People are still donating, we have donations points in places like Asda and Tesco Havant, and we have had harvest festivals in the local area and people have still being giving but they are not giving as much.’

Due to the pandemic, the amount of people that were accessing the service doubled, and that has remained the same due to the cost of living crisis, and the team have gone from helping approximately 25 families per week to 50.

Liz added: ‘There are a lot of places in the south that are in poverty and are struggling but you never see it. There are pockets down here that are in poverty.’

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The manager of Gosport Basics Foodbank, Pam Elliott, has also noticed the increased number of people that have needed support.

She said: ‘There has been a huge increase and people that I would never have expected are now using us. I have worked here for 13 or 14 years and and we never really got pensioners come in asking for food but they now can’t afford it, and they come in very embarrassed about it.

‘Even baked beans, we have had to go and buy baked beans and we have never had to buy them before but it shows how we are not even getting the basics that we need.’

In most supermarkets, there are foodbanks trolleys where customers can donate food to support foodbanks as they are needed more than ever.