A food bank in Thanet, which is keeping hundreds of families from going hungry, will have to suspend its services if a new premises cannot be found.

Margate Independent Food Bank started up in June last year, in reaction to soaring food poverty as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Darryn de la Soul is trying to keep the food bank from suspending its services

But with the UK continuing its creep out of lockdown, the Union Church, in Union Crescent, can no longer give the organisation the space it needs to store food and prepare parcels.

The organisers are now desperately trying to find a new space to operate out of – but after eight weeks of frantic searching have still not found anywhere.

Darryn de la Soul, a director and logistics co-ordinator for the organisation, said: "May 2 is the absolute last date we can be in, so without having found another premises it looks like we're going to have to suspend the services until we can find somewhere new to operate from.

"With everything opening up, obviously the church has prior users – girl guides and other societies that have a prior claim on the space.

"And the thing about a food bank is of course we have stock. So it's not like the girl guides can use it on a Monday and we can use it on Tuesday – we occupy space, so it's very difficult to share a space with another organisation.

"Initially we were only supposed to be there until September, but they've extended it and extended it. We've only seen the need grow. We haven't seen the need decrease in any way."

It comes as nationwide food charity the Trussell Trust this week revealed an extra 1,400 children in Medway received supplies from food banks last year.

Across the UK, it is reporting record levels of need as more than 2.5 million emergency food parcels were handed out during the last 12 months.

Thanet is one of the few places in Kent where the Trussell Trust does not have a presence – but with one of the county's highest poverty rates, there are hundreds of residents who rely on emergency food services.

To continue operating the Margate food bank, the organisers hope to find a hall – similar to the size of a standard Scout hall or church hall – with access for food delivery trucks so they can be loaded.

They also need a location for the food bank which is easy for people to visit and collect parcels.

Darryn said: "We were up and running within 10 days. Since then we have built up our client base and it is now about 200 households a week that we serve."

The people who use the food bank are evenly split between those who collect a parcel and those who have them delivered due to medical reasons. Those in the latter group are of the most concern to the food bank director.

She said: "These are the people I'm particularly worried about because we're one of the few services in Thanet who will deliver on a large scale.

"It's a military operation..."

"So if we're unable to keep delivering to these people, it's unlikely other foods banks will be able to pick up the slack on that.

"I think it's pretty devastating. There are quite a few of our clients for whom we are their main source of sustenance...so we're literally taking the food out of people's mouths."

During the past 10 months, Margate Independent Food Bank has run on the hard work of volunteers, who have given up hours of their time to ensure the success of the organisation.

Darryn said: "We have the most wonderful, consistent group of volunteers who come back week after week and we've formed a family bond between each other.

"It's been so good to build this really great team, everybody knows what they're doing – it's a military operation.

"Now we can get 100 bags out the door in a cramped space in a really efficient manner."

What goes into a food bank parcel?

Those who have never been in the difficult position of having to rely on a food parcel might not know what goes into it.

While a lot of the produce is tinned for ease of storage, the Margate food bank also gets through a staggering 300 litres of milk a week.

Darryn said: "There's some types of fish, beans, tinned vegetables, pasta, rice, tinned fruit, tinned tomatoes, chickpeas and lentils.

"We also make sure we give people as much fresh potatoes, carrots and onions as possible, because those things can really flesh out any meal you've got in a can."

A common misconception Darryn often hears is that the food in the parcels is all donated. Although a portion of it is, most of the food is purchased by the organisation.

"It's clear that while we're deeply grateful for donations, it's not enough," she said.

"We have to buy a lot of the food and this is why cash donations are particularly good for food banks, because we have access to lower cost foods through organisations like Fareshare."

Do you know somewhere in Margate the food bank could move to? Click here to contact Darryn and her team

Read more: All the latest news from Thanet