Charity reports soaring demand at food banks across north of Wales

A north Wales charity is reporting that demand at its nine food banks has soared by almost 50 per cent to over 1100 people a month as the cost of living has rocketed.

Flintshire Foodbank, which opened in 2012, stores the donations of food and goods on the shelves which once held the books of the former county library, off Mold’s Raikes Lane.

They have just taken delivery of a consignment, including canned foods, toiletries and toilet rolls, from Denbigh-based Lock Stock Self Storage which has storage parks across the county and which was quick to answer an appeal from the food bank for more supplies.

From the old library a small army of over 70 volunteers stock and staff weekly food banks in Queensferry, Mold, Buckley, Holywell, Flint, Connah’s Quay, Saltney, Sealand and Shotton.

Flintshire Food Bank Project Manager Sue Leake said: “When we started we relied entirely on donations but now we have to buy food on a regular basis to meet the needs of our clients.

“Some of the people coming to us now are telling us they used to donate food to us. Our food donations are falling as the cost of living crisis affects everyone.

“We are really running short of baked beans, ready meals, tinned tuna, toilet rolls and tinned tomatoes.

“Even though inflation is running at 10 per cent the price increases in lots of these basic foodstuffs is more than 20 per cent and that’s having a big impact.

“A year ago we were providing about 700 food parcels a month and now that figure has risen to 1100.

“In the 12 months to March 30 we provided 11,573 food parcels and almost 5,000 were for children.”

Difficult

The donation from Lock Stock Self Storage was handed over by Sales Consultant Lisa James and she said: “The team of volunteers here do a fantastic job at a time when so many people are finding just putting food on the table very difficult.

“It’s clearly a much-needed service here in Flintshire and as a business we like to support the local communities where we have a presence.

“Flintshire is very important to us and we have a strong presence in the county where we have storage parks at Buckley, Mold, Sandycroft, Flint and Saltney.

“We like to support the places where we are in business whether that’s charities like Flintshire Foodbank or local schools and community groups.”

Lock Stock, founded in Denbigh in 1998, is the UK’s largest containerised storage company with almost 4,500 units providing over four million cubic feet of space at storage parks across North and Mid Wales and the border counties.

Their existing sites stretch from Holyhead and along the North Wales coast at Porthmadog, Caernarfon, Bangor, Llandudno, Abergele and Rhyl, on the Dee at Flint, Saltney and Deeside and inland at Denbigh, Mold, Buckley, Wrexham and Newtown in Powys, and at Oswestry and Shrewsbury in Shropshire.