An independent food bank in Thanet had its busiest month ever in June, feeding nearly 1,000 people struggling to buy food to feed themselves and their families.

Thanet Food Link, which opens three mornings a week at St Paul's Church, Cliftonville, fed 971 people last month, nearly six times more than the 166 fed in June 2019.

Debbie Ellisdon runs the food bank and struggled to believe how many people have needed to use the service.

She said: "We knew how busy we had been but we were shocked to see those figures.

"We're hoping it will slow down next month but right now there's a queue outside every morning."

Debbie is supported by a team of eight volunteers, who collect the food donations, pack them and hand them out to those who are in need.

Before the pandemic the food bank limited clients to six parcels a year but as people's needs increased they have upped the number to eight.

Debbie believes the increase has a lot to do with people on zero-hours contracts who slipped through the gap of government support when the country went into lockdown.

She said: "There's a lot of people I've spoken to who haven't been entitled to any government money because they've been hourly paid, cash in hand, or there has been problems with benefits and they're waiting to start a claim because they have lost work."

National food bank network The Trussell Trust has campaigned over the past few years to end the five-week wait for Universal Credit, which has been said to drive up the need for food banks as people wait to receive their money.

Food is not the only basic need people in the Cliftonville area are struggling to pay for.

Basic toiletries are in short supply at the food bank, such as toilet roll, toothpaste and deodorant.

"Right now there's a queue outside every morning..."

Debbie said: "People are asking for individual toilet roll - that's a real level of desperation when you have to ask 'have you got a toilet roll?'

"This is real need, not just a case of 'I'll get what I can'."

In addition to toiletries, the food bank is asking local people to donate food including tinned main meals, tinned spaghetti and biscuits.

A total of 477 food vouchers were redeemed at the food bank in June 2020, in comparison with 108 redeemed in June 2019.

Debbie added: "We keep thinking it'll go down but each month it's just going up."

Read more: All the latest news from Thanet