Article in the Oswestry and Border Counties Advertizer.
Reporter
The manager at Oswestry and Borders Foodbank has praised the community for its generosity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Liz Jermy, who oversees the store based in Beatrice Street, has again been overwhelmed by the response of the public during the crisis.
In March, Trussel Trust, which supports more than 1,200 foodbanks across the UK including the site in Oswestry, recorded an 81 per cent increase in the number of foodbank users nationally.
With donations of food, money and gifts still being contributed by the people of Oswestry and beyond, Liz says the foodbank has been able to help even more people on a weekly basis.
She said: “There has been an increase in the number of people using foodbanks, and again we just want to say thank you to the community, because they have been amazing.”
“It has enabled the foodbank to increase the number of people it can help – we have remained a buoyant charity which is solely down to the generosity of the community.”
“Nationally there has been an 81 per cent increase in the use of foodbanks across Trussel Trust, and a 59 per cent increase across other independent foodbanks in the country.”
“That is a very big difference between March this year and March in 2019, for example.”
“So to be able to go from helping 30 people to 50 people a week makes a massive difference on our stock loads, but like I said, the help of the supermarkets and the community has meant we have remained buoyant, so a huge thank you to them.”
“The continued support, whether that’s gifts, dropping off food or even setting up a standing order or donating money if they can’t leave their house at the minute, has really been fantastic.”
“We’d also like to thank Pennant for their help providing us with door and table screens, as well as face shields.”
Liz feels that despite the negative fact that more people are having to use foodbanks, it is a positive thing to know people are still willing to help.
She believes the foodbank, which has been in the town for almost a decade, remains in Oswestry because of the generosity of donors.
With many people still off work because of the virus outbreak, Liz believes the increase in foodbank users nationally could continue.
“I think we are going to continue to see this high number of people using the services,” she explained.
“We have also noticed a difference in the clients, so as well as those who we would expect to be more vulnerable, such as those who are transient or those who don’t have a permanent home, we have also helped people working in the hospitality and builders trades, and even NHS staff.”
“There are also people who might currently be trying to pay the bills with one income in the household as opposed to two they have normally, and they may realise it’s much harder to pay bills with universal credit.”
“Although the safety net of universal credit is great, it is low, so if you have lived to your income for a while and then you drop down to that, it’s usually quite a drop.”
“I think our high numbers will continue for quite a while with that in mind.”
“We know we are often the last resort, and only last week we took food parcels to people who hadn’t been eating for two or three days – when you hear that, you want to make sure you’re getting to these people before it reaches that point.”
Liz also thanked the volunteers at the foodbank for their help. She added: “We’ve got plenty of volunteers, and we still have a waiting list for that. Even though we have fewer of them actually working at the moment, we still have plenty of them.”
“More people now know that we’re here which is a really good thing.”
“We’re just the facilitators in the middle, it’s the community who are actually helping those in need.”