Oswestry food bank seeing 'steady increase' in demand

BBC News

26-05-2025

A food bank in Oswestry has said it is spending more than £70,000 a year on buying supplies.It comes as figures from the Trussell Trust show that nearly 245,000 emergency food parcels were given to families across the West Midlands in the past year.Oswestry and Borders Foodbank provides groceries and hygiene products - as well as practical advice and support.Manager Liz Jermy said she was seeing a "steady increase in families needing to use our food bank."
Anti-poverty charity the Trussell Trust, which runs a nationwide network of food banks, has found a 44% increase over the past year in the number of food parcels it's giving out.In the areas of Shropshire run by Shropshire Council, 9,753 parcels were given to families from three Trussell Trust food banks between April 2024 and March 2025.Between April 2017 and March 2018, just 4,737 were handed out.The charity does not have any food banks in the region run by Telford and Wrekin Council.
Ms Jermy said in 2024, the food bank spent £72,000 on food."That's just for Oswestry and the surrounding villages," she said.She said she's seen a "big rise" in people needing to use the food bank since the Covid-19 pandemic."It's people who are in work, but just not able to make ends meet."
The trust believes it's important to have people working and volunteering at food banks who know what it's like to need their help.Eleven years ago, Malcolm was homeless due to illness causing him to give up working and a marriage breakdown.He ended up being placed in a Travelodge, whilst looking after his ill son.Malcolm said he was "very worried" about going to a food bank for the first time, adding that he was "very emotional because I couldn't get food to feed my son."
"I walked in to find smiling faces [...] [and] they sent me off with two big bags of food," he said. Once he was back on his feet, Malcolm decided he "wanted to give back."He is now a volunteer and trustee at Oswestry and Borders Food Bank - his role involves welcoming people into the building."If there's a queue I go and talk to them - because I remember how I felt the first time I walked in."
Ben, who is employed by the Trussell Trust, has his own experiences of food poverty, and believes rising prices are leaving more families in need of the charity's help."As someone who's lived on Universal Credit, I know it's not enough to afford all of the essentials," he said. "You might be able to afford three out of the five essentials, but you need to find the other two somewhere - that's where food banks plug in the gap."
Volunteer and trustee Alison said she is not surprised that the number of families receiving food parcels is rising."Everybody is tightening their belts, and there is an increasing amount of people for whom tightening their belt just isn't enough," she said. When Alison's husband died suddenly, she remembered the "sick feeling" when she realised there was no life insurance to help support the family."These things come out of the blue, and you have no idea [what to do]."
Alison added that food banks offer a lot more than just groceries."Financial advice, mental health support, bereavement support - all that kind of things happening alongside the tins of beans."
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