Northampton Hope Centre warns of looming 50 per cent rise in food bank demand on top of Covid-19 boom

Hope Centre Northampton is bracing for a possible 50 per cent rise in food bank usage going in to 2022, due in part to Covid-19 and Government cuts.

The charity tackles issues of 'disadvantage and marginalisation' across the board, including mental health, homelessness and food poverty.

The charity runs the 'Hope foodclub', a service that lets families on low incomes or benefits pay a £10 per month membership fee for free access to food and other goods, and it runs all year.

Louise Danielczuk, fundraising and marketing manager for Hope Centre Northampton, revealed that demand for these food services went up massively during the pandemic, with more expected in the coming year.

She said: "Prior to the pandemic, our foodbank was seeing about 30 people a week. That being 30 parcels per week.

"That rose significantly and at the height of the pandemic we were seeing 196. We're still distributing 150 parcels per week and that's a huge increase.

"We're anticipating that to rise again in the post-Covid-19 climate, especially with cuts to the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit, among other factors."

"We could see a 50 per cent increase on top of the five-fold increase we're already managing.

As the Government considers fresh restrictions to combat the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the fear is that more people could be driven towards needing foodbanks in future.

Many factors play a role, like the removal of the £20 per week uplift to universal credit, added during previous lockdowns, as well as a planned increase in Council Tax for West Northamptonshire to land early next year.

Others include rising costs of fuel, energy and some food items themselves.

Because of this, the Hope Centre is reportedly seeking much more support to keep up with demand.

Louise said: "We are very fortunate that we can run successful campaigns each year. We've just had a good Christmas where people have given quite a lot.

"Before, a couple of campaigns were enough to keep us going. Now we're going to companies and asking 'can we do another drive in February or March time?' and checking if they have anything we could use.

"I don't think people know how many there are who need help. And there are some who aren't using our services that do need them.

"Going into January, it's inevitable that people will have overspent in December

Anyone who is interested can find out more from the Food Aide Alliance: West Northants' website.

They can also visit the Hope Centre's website or call directly on: 01604 214300