'It's a relief, just knowing it's there' - Leeds woman's gratitude for city's food aid network

The 48-year-old has been shielding during the Covid-19 pandemic - stuck inside her one-bed fourth-floor flat in Burmantofts - due to health complications including anaemia and low immune system.

She said coping with debt on just her monthly Universal Credit payment meant she has been forced to rely on hand-outs in times of desperate need - at least once a week during the early days of lockdown but now once or twice a month.

She said: "Just as lockdown was starting, I came out of hospital. I was really poorly and on medication. I had to eat to take my tablets. I got paid once a month so it was hard trying to budget with that.

"Money is really tight. Because I've been in hospital quite a lot obviously the bills mount up. They keep adding £5 on top of them when I'm in arrears. I'm in a lot of arrears with bills."

Andrea was referred to the food banks by an agency she is involved with.

She said: "If it hadn't have been for them, I would have been starving. I wouldn't have been able to take my medication. I probably would have been really depressed - I suffer from depression and anxiety as well, so it's not a good thing not to be eating.

"I can send them a message and they put a referral in. They come to bring it and phone me and I go downstairs to the lobby and they leave it there. I go out and pick it up and bring it back in.

"They are brilliant. All the volunteers, the drivers - everyone. Just brilliant people.

"It's a relief, just knowing that it's there. It's the security. I've got no family or anything, so it's knowing that you can get it."

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Thank you

Laura Collins