A Bristol foodbank is predicting its worst winter on record, expecting a 25% increase in people using their services this Christmas.
Miriam Betts, Deputy Manager at South and East Bristol Foodbank, said: “We’re expecting it to be our worst winter yet.
“We thought that with the pandemic and then we thought that post-pandemic, but the numbers just keep rising. In South and East Bristol Foodbank we’re expecting a 25% rise in the people we’re feeding this Christmas.”
Some of the branch’s outlets have recently celebrated 10 years of working with local communities.
However, Miss Betts warned that although donations have remained the same as in previous years, demand is skyrocketing, putting the future of the service at risk.
She said: “In the long term obviously it’s not sustainable. We rely heavily on donations from the general public and as these aren’t meeting the demand of the population there are times when we have thought […] at the end of the day we just have to shut an outlet.”
She continued: “It can be disheartening […] but as a charity you have to accept you can only do what you can do.”
This comes as the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement on Wednesday, announcing National Insurance reductions and a 10% increase in the National Minimum Wage.
Miss Betts said these policies come at the expense of those using foodbanks.
“A lot of the clients we see through the door are on benefits […] therefore they won’t see the benefit from a rise in the living wage.
“For the government to be able to make these tax reductions and increase the living wage they need to get this money from somewhere else.
“They are planning to cut down the amount of people on Personal Independence Payment (PIP), especially those on PIP because of mental health reasons.
“They are suggesting these people need to be taken off and put back into the workforce.”
Miss Betts called the plan “not sustainable”, continuing “this will be detrimental for their mental health and create a negative spiral whereby they will end up coming back to the foodbank because they’ll leave work because of issues.”
Bristol Metro Mayor Dan Norris also criticised the policies, saying in a statement that “as always, this is another budget that was more notable for what was not in it.”
