Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Bude Foodbank has been under huge pressure, with a dramatic increase in demand for its services.
Bude Food Bank currently supports over 1,200 families every year with essential food parcels and emotional support and last year faced a further sharp rise in the number of people needing the Food Bank’s help.
In the last few weeks, Bude Foodbank has seen a further sharp rise in requests for support as many more people suddenly face new challenges due to changes in personal circumstances.
Pastor of Oceans Community Church, Steve Ellerington, who also helps at the Food Bank said “We’ve had to protect our staff and close the Food Bank to people walking in and are instead offering booking slots for people to either come and collect food parcels, or we will deliver them directly to houses. It’s been a hugely challenging time and our volunteers are working flat out to prepare food parcels. We’ve never been so busy and we really think this is just the tip of the iceberg. As financial circumstances will undoubtedly get worse, we’re concerned with the high numbers of people who will need help. We’re a town where a large number of our residents rely on tourism for employment. With Bude being like a ghost town over Easter, we can only see things getting more challenging as time goes on. “
Steve added “We will continue to do everything we can to help people who need our support and would encourage anyone to call us if they need urgent help. We would like to thank supermarkets and individual people who have been so generous in supporting us. If people do want to help us, the best way is to make a donation on our website which will allow us to buy the food we need.”
For more information on the Food Bank or to make a donation, please visit our donation page.
Original Post Date: April 13th 2020
