DEMAND for Swindon’s food bank has rocketed since lockdown began.

Figures from Swindon Food Collective show nearly three times as many people came through their doors in March this year compared with last year.

Manager Cher Smith, said the organisation handed out food to over 1,072 people in March, up from 388 in the same month in 2019.

“We certainly have been operating above normal,” she said. “In the beginning, it felt like rabbit in the headlights, but we have now settled into a new way of doing things.”

This echoes the picture across the rest of the country.

The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest food bank network, said it gave out 89 per cent more food parcels in April, than in the same month last year.

Cher said the food bank handed out nearly 10-and-a-half tonnes of food in March compared to four-and-a-half the year before.

“To see that, that really is a 'wow',” Cher said.

“What we’re finding is that there is a different group of people who are coming through now. It’s far more families with children and couples.

“The single people seem to have dropped off, and I suppose because some of the homeless people who would normally come to us are accommodated, or people have gone home to their families,” she added.

April’s figures also show an uptick in demand, with just under a 70 per cent increase – from 450 people fed last year, to 750 people this year.

Since the lockdown began the food bank has had to close three of its distribution centres due to volunteer shortages as well as introduce social distancing measures.

Trustee Clare Collier said: “While our capacity to serve people went down, we managed to increase the number of people we were helping, which is crazy. But if it hadn’t the figures may well have been higher.”

She added that the government’s job retention scheme is often not enough to stop people going hungry.

“If you’re on a low salary and you’re put on to 80 per cent of your former salary, your fixed costs such as housing and fuel and heating aren’t going to go down.

“The only flexible cost you’ve got is your food. So if you previously had say £40 a week to spend on food you now have £20 which is actually a 50 per cent drop. It’s the disposable income that you can spend on food that is going to be affected most because everything else is fixed price,” she said.

Both women said the figures did not reflect the real picture due to the number of other organisations handing out food, such as Swindon Children’s Scrapstore, Gateway Furniture, Swindon Night Shelter and Swindon Borough Council, among many others.

“People are getting food from all sorts of sources but gradually those schemes are going to cease,” said Clare.

“Those people are going to have to start coming to us. As we get back to more of a normal situation we’re going to have a recession, and a recession means job losses.”

The government was forced into a U-turn yesterday on its school meal scheme, follow a campaign by Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, who called for the decision to end the vouchers during the summer holidays to be reversed.

In an open letter to Parliament published on Monday he said: “Political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry?”

“Whilst 1.3 million children in England are registered for free school meals, one quarter of these children have not been given any support since the school closures were ordered.

“Parents like mine would rely on kids’ clubs over the summer break, providing a safe space and at least one meal, whilst they work. Today, parents do not have this as an option.”

He said there are “parents who are sacrificing their own meals for their children. In 2020, it shouldn’t be a case of one or the other.”

Paying tribute to the volunteers who have made all the handouts possible, Cher said “We are anticipating a prolonged increase in demand for the next few months, if not longer.

“I'd like to say thank you to everybody who has donated to us and supported to us. The support, kindness and generosity that we’ve had through Covid- 19 has been very much appreciated and has helped us enormously.

“We couldn’t have handed out so much food without all the help we’ve received,” she said.