Leeds families face hunger in Christmas crisis

This prediction has come from the two main centres in the city which have both seen increases in the number of people relying on them throughout the year and also the festive periods.

During December last year Leeds North and West foodbank fed 928 people (379 of these were children) and Leeds South and East foodbank supported 853 people (353 children).

This is compared to 797 people for December 2016 at South East and 862 for North West.

And today the Yorkshire Evening Post relaunches its Feed A Family campaign to help support some of our city’s most vulnerable people over Christmas.

We are calling on you to pick up an extra item in your food shopping to help ensure that families across Leeds can tuck into a meal on Christmas Day.

A further data collection revealed a 29 per cent increase in people going to Leeds North and West between April and September this year and Leeds South and East foodbank saw a 32 per cent increase for the same period.

Both say they expect December to replicate the pattern meaning around 2,300 adults and children will be tucking into food parcels for Christmas dinner.

Karen Burgon, project manager for Leeds North West said: “I was quite shocked and it would be great if we don’t see that many people but some people have not filled their cupboards for weeks.“I am not sure what they would be having if it was not for the food from here.”

It costs on average £20 to make a food parcel for one person which is to last a few days. But as they prepare the December ones the volunteers at the foodbanks, which operate as part of the national charity The Trussell Trust, are making them a little more special with festive extras.

They could be items such as tinned ham, jam, pickles, mince pies or Christmas pudding and if the parcels are for a family with children there will be a selection box and over the last couple of weeks they had advent calendars in for the kids.

Ms Burgon added: “We do put extra in and even crackers the week or two before Christmas, so there is something festive and it is not just the usual tins of soup or beans.“It makes them feel as though they are not missing out. Quite often people are overwhelmed anyway when they come to a foodbank but get more emotional when they get extra things they are not expecting."

Donations

With foodbanks across the city handing out in the region of 9,000 food parcels each, per year, they rely heavily on donations and fundraising to make sure people in Leeds don’t go hungry.

Collection points have been set up in supermarkets and community hubs across Leeds such as Tesco at Roundhay and Bramley and Asda in Pudsey and Adel.

The Trussell Trust, which manages the Leeds South East and North West centres, has also teamed up with Leeds United this season.

A collection point is situated in Bremner Square at home games and players, as well as famous fans such as The Kaiser Chiefs, have dropped off food in the last few weeks, while ‘The Travellers Challenge’ is sweeping the country.

The #FoodbankNomination challenge involves members of the community nominating each other to fill a trolley or a basket with food and supplies, and donate it to a local food bank and Karen Burgon, project manager for Leeds North West said that last week there were two trolleys and 40 crates of food dropped off at Asda.

She said: “We have had a massive amount of incredible donations. We have had a great outpouring over the last few weeks of people being generous.“It is such a broad variety of people that have a crisis. There is a lot more publicity and talk around it now which makes people realise it could be them at any point.”