Donations at a vital food bank have dropped drastically due to the cost of living crisis.

Nourish Community Foodbank in Tunbridge Wells is now struggling to help hundreds of families in need after donations reduced by nearly three quarters in two years.

In April 2020, the charity received more than 10,300kg of donations, while in April this year it received just over 2,600kg.

Operations director Dawn Stanford explained the food bank is helping 120 households across the town and needs 2000kg per week to help current referrals.

“As you can see, we are in a deficit for donations at the moment,” she said.

“We have seen a dramatic drop in donated food. The cost of living crisis is definitely having an impact on the food bank and its users.

“We have been very fortunate with support financially and are able to use funds to purchase wholesale food items but this pot is not bottomless. We buy from Morrisons wholesale and are able to, apart from some small occasional distribution issues, get a weekly delivery to keep levels of stock sustainable.

“The problem is, we don’t know if we are going to have deliveries fulfilled. We had an entire month of no deliveries as the wholesale warehouse had staffing issues which then had an immediate impact on us.

'The cost of living crisis has affected everyone, both in Tunbridge Wells and the rural area...'

“The prices have increased, staple items have all increased so we, like everyone, get less for each pound we spend. We also provide fresh vegetables in every parcel we send and the price of that has increased too.

“We are seeing people far deeper in crisis than we have in recent years and needing longer support, 2019/20 saw 58% needing support for three weeks or less and 20/21 32%.

“I anticipate the 21/22 figure to be even lower.

“The cost of living crisis has affected everyone, both in Tunbridge Wells and the rural areas, and demand is only increasing. We are able to provide an energy voucher now as part of our support to those households on prepayment meters and this is an example of how Nourish has again evolved to meet the current need and crisis and we can only do this with the support of our community.”

Dawn said the food bank was helping an increasing amount of people with around 40 more families needing help compared to before the pandemic.

She said donating to Nourish would really help, but has urged people to talk more about the charity and the work they do.

The operations manager has told people every little bit of support helps them in some way.

“I always ask everyone to speak to other people about us,” she added.

“There is a good chance you will speak to someone in a position able to financially support us, or to organise a collection at their workplace.

“The other person you speak to may be someone who needs our help and that’s just as important.”

Dawn and the team deliver goods every weekday and anonymous deliveries are made by one of many volunteers in their own cars.

One staff member from Nourish, who didn’t want to be named, added: “We are now really struggling because as food prices and the general cost of living are going up donations have dropped steeply but our client base gets bigger every day.

“Most people will have tins or packets of food tucked in the back of their cupboard or cleaning products or personal hygiene items that they bought and never used for one reason or another.”

David Idowu, from Gravesham Food Bank in Dickens Road, Gravesend, echoed the problems Nourish Community Food Bank has had.

He said: “The cost of living has inadvertently affected our foodbank in terms of the voluntary contribution of food from donors because of the rising food costs.

“This has resulted in us needing to do more food drives to replenish dwindling stocks.”

The foodbank boss revealed the number of people it is feeding per month has doubled since April.

In April, it fed 195 people in total – 119 adults and 76 children – while in May and June it fed 457 people, including 226 adults and 231 children.

The three months shows just over 900 people being fed by the foodbank within three months, compared to 569 people during the same period last year.

Mr Idowu added: “The increased cost of living is definitely impacting the demand on foodbanks across Kent as more and more people see themselves sliding into the poverty line and into food crisis.”