‘Food banks saved my skin’: On the front line of the cost of living crisis as demand soars

There can be few among us who have yet to be impacted by the cost of living crisis, as millions of Britons are forced to make difficult choices every day about what to spend their money on.

In increasing numbers, struggling households are turning to food banks for help as grocery bills continue to soar. The Independent has been visiting food banks this week, to speak to people who see them as an essential lifeline in difficult times.

Once Gary has paid his monthly energy bills and rent, he is left with about £20 every fortnight. For him, the food bank in Kingston, south London, is a lifeline without which he would struggle to survive.

A single man living in a one-bed flat, he has seen his monthly energy bills double from £67 to £125.

Holding a bag of food that he managed to pick up earlier from a church down the road, he explained that the box of supplies he will get at the Kingston food bank will keep him going for about two weeks.

“Sometimes you’ve got to persevere with what you’ve got and squeeze two dinners out of one,” he said.

“For a single bloke such as myself, it’s a helpline to get some food to survive”.

Those in need are referred here by frontline services, such as doctors or councils, and are checked in when they arrive.

A volunteer then guides them round Everyday Church as they pick up the items they want. They have a list and can survey what’s on offer, just as they would in a supermarket.

Demand has soared over the past few months and the number of people supported has risen by 54 per cent from June to September this year. This includes a 55 per cent rise in the number of children supported, from 190 in June to 295 in September.

Cooking oil, ketchup and toilet roll are always the first things to run out, said Molly, one of the volunteers on hand when The Independent went to visit.

William, 66, who is retired, started coming to the food bank about three months ago.

“I have been homeless but now I live in a house provided by the council nearby. Before that I was living at the YMCA for two years,” he said.

Jean, 84, who is also retired, is a regular visitor and has been coming along since the food bank opened.

Calling herself the “fittest woman in Kingston”, she has a discounted deal at the local gym that allows her to go every day and take part in classes from Zumba to pilates.

“The staff are so friendly here and you can get everything you need,” she said. “I live on my own and my son and my daughter are not living so well at the moment. The people here are assisting me with my energy bills, which are extremely costly.”

Jean had brought along a letter from her local MP about government schemes to get help. She struggled to use the computer and so was hoping to get the volunteers to show her how to follow the links on the sheet.

Ian Jacobs, who helps run the food bank, said that the most common reasons why people sought help were low income, benefit delays, benefit changes, debt, sickness and homelessness.

One client, Richard, 58, had fallen on hard times during the pandemic. “I got separated from my wife just before Covid and I used to be a carpenter. The work just completely dried up and I hit the bottle. I’m down to two cans a day which ain’t bad,” he said.

He had just been told that he had got a place on a rehab course and he was trying to look for work.

“This place has saved my skin, really. I’m on universal credit and I come here when food runs out. That tin of beans can make a big difference. It’s wonderful because the people are so nice. I can’t praise it enough,” he added.

Only an hour away in West Brompton, mother-of-four Jomana was busy cooking food in the kitchen of Dad’s House, a community food bank and support centre.

The charity puts on weekly cooked lunches for people in the local area as well as giving them dried food to take away.

For Mandy, 57, the hub was a “lifesaver”.

“There’s no stigma coming here,” she said. “I actually started coming here to get food for my son who has schizophrenia. He lives in support housing and they support him by giving him his medication but when it comes to other things it’s not easy. They do try but he lives with me on and off.”

Mandy, who has lived in Earls Court for over 20 years, had brought a halal goat curry with peas and rice for everyone to share.

Manel, 30, who was also sat round the table for lunch, said that she liked coming to Dad’s House because she could meet and chat with people.

“My husband is a delivery driver and I have two children, one in reception and one age eight. I really like it here because they give us the food that we need,” she said. Her family had travelled to the UK from Algeria and she had found work teaching French and Arabic.

Like Kingston food bank, Dad’s House has seen an increase in need over recent months, with a particular rise from July to August. “We’re getting new referrals on a daily basis. We’ve seen a huge increase,” Billy Graham, the founder of Dad’s House, said.

“We’ve dropped 90 per cent in financial donations due to the cost of living and the food donations vary. We couldn’t guarantee what will come tomorrow.”

Sean Mendes, who works for Dad’s House and also heads up the charity Solidarity Sports, said that a lot of the families he works with are below the breadline.

“We’ve got one mum at the moment who is in an electric wheelchair and she has got to choose between charging up her wheelchair to pick up the children or having enough charge to go to the shops and get food.

“It is the ones that are suffering the most already that really notice things like energy bills going up. Dad’s House and Solidarity Sports shouldn’t exist, we are doing the state’s work for the state,” he said.

Both organisations have recently received a £10,000 grant from Hammersmith and Fulham Giving and they asked the parents what they most wanted the money to be spent on.

The answer was revealing, and a sad reflection on the times in which we find ourselves: food vouchers.