The cost-of-living crisis is forcing thousands more people across Kent to turn to handouts to keep their families fed.

Here, those left facing the most desperate of situations tell how they ended up at the door of one of the county’s food banks…

It was the heating bills that pushed Sandra* over the edge.

As a single mother with a disabled son, the January cold snap meant she was spending all her money keeping the home warm. Then she ran out of food.

“I do work but it’s just the cost of living at the moment,” she says.

“Christmas was bad and now I’m really struggling. I don’t know what’s happened really, but I’m just struggling for food.”

Sandra is one of hundreds in the Canterbury district who have turned to a food bank for the first time as inflation sends the price of groceries and energy soaring.

And with that desperation comes a sense of shame.

“I could literally just cry,” she admits.

“Being a professional as well, it is so hard to make this call. I’m a proud person.

“But last night I said to myself ‘I have no choice. I’ve got to swallow my pride’. I’m sorry I’ve had to reach out to you.’”

That is what led Sandra to be speaking on the phone to Canterbury Food Bank, which has trebled in size in the past three years because of the growing demand for help.

She was talking to one of a team of signposters - specialist welfare advisors who take an in-depth look at the problems she is facing.

Signposters are what makes the charity distinct from many other food banks. As well as arranging for emergency food to be delivered, they offer guidance on a range of measures that can help people out of the situation that has brought them to a food bank’s door

By the time Sandra rings off she has been reassured a food parcel will be with her imminently.

But she has also been directed towards a support fund run by Canterbury City Council, told she can apply for a council tax discount, given help with her household shopping through another charity and registered for an £89 fuel voucher.

On another phone a signposter in the ever-busy office is talking with Jackie*, a single mother who is trying to make ends meet but cannot ever seem to quite catch up.

“I lost my job a couple of months ago and money has just been very tight ever since,” she says.

“I’ve got a little girl as well and I’m struggling month to month.

“With the cost of everything going up, it is so hard. The cost of food has doubled and I’m finding that when I’m doing the food shop I’m not able to get a lot.

“Most of the food is going on my daughter and I go days without eating sometimes.”

Another caller explains how she needs food because she has had to make six expensive trips to a hospital 20 miles from her to visit a consultant.

A fourth tells how she celebrated her daughter’s birthday with a packet of iced biscuits because that was all she could afford.

All are given additional advice on how they can apply for extra funds from councils and charities, and helped with information on benefits they may be entitled to.

People on the lowest incomes in the Canterbury district are missing out on more than £40m worth of income-related benefits a year.

Although the money for these benefits is budgeted for by the government, thousands who are eligible simply do not apply for them.

The charity has recently joined forces with the city council and Canterbury Society to try to reach those who are missing out.

Canterbury Food Bank distributed enough food to make 130,815 meals in the past year.

The charity, one of the biggest food banks in the UK, fed 14,535 adults and children in a district which has a population of 164,553.

The cost-of-living crisis has led to a steep increase in clients and a downturn in donations at supermarkets as the price of groceries has soared.

The food bank spent £100,000 in 2023 to top up these donations and make sure no one went without food.

Operations director Angela Gardiner said: “Signposting is a vital part of what we do. We have never wanted to be a charity which just hands out food, we want to help alleviate poverty.

“Time and compassion goes into each call.

“Many are similar but no two are the same and they are never treated as such - every caller is given the space to have their story heard without judgment and then individualised signposting support can be offered, rather than generic advice.

“Our emergency food parcels provide a breathing space and our specialist signposting advice helps people away from the difficulties that have brought them to us.

“It gives our clients a real opportunity to get back on their feet.”

The food bank’s chair of trustees, Martin Ward, said: “The future is unwritten, but our data points to the hunger gap in the Canterbury district continuing to widen over the next 12 months.

“We have never considered ourselves to be a permanent solution. This can only come with governmental and societal will.

“But while we wait for that to happen, we will continue to provide for those who cannot afford to eat.”