Debt advice scheme leads to reduction in food bank usage in Barrow

Barrow Foodbank gave away 7,251 three-day emergency food supplies in 2015/16, 18 per cent less than 2014/15.

It comes after staff from the Citizens Advice Bureau based themselves at the collection point in Abbey Road Baptist Church so they could give struggling people financial advice at the same they collected food parcels.

Ann Mills, project manager at Barrow Foodbank, said: "We welcome an 18.05 per cent drop in need for the foodbank at the moment, and really hope this trend continues.

"But 7,251 of three day food supplies provided to people in crisis is still 7251 too many, and more needs to be done so we can continue to see the need for the food bank decline.

"We have seen this decrease in the number of people attending due to having advisers at the food bank six hours per week who were able to see the clients at the same time they collected food."

The advice given by CAB staff and solutions found has cut the number of repeat service users, proving the link up has so far been successful.

The top three reasons for referral at Barrow Foodbank over the last 12 months were benefit delays, child holiday meals and low income.

Nationally, the Trussell Trust saw a two per cent increase in the number of three-day supplies provided to people across its network of 424 food banks, handing out more than 1.1 million units of emergency supplies.

Facts and figures

- Barrow Foodbank has been providing three-days emergency food and support to local people since July 23 2012.

- In 2014/15, 8,809 three-day emergency food supplies were provided in Barrow, Millom and Ulverston. Of this number, 3,798 went to children.

- The running costs for Barrow Foodbank are around £50,000 a year, all of which is raised locally. Costs include warehouse space, a van to pick up donated food and deliver to distribution centres, utilities and insurances. 

- 66.67 tonnes of food were donated by the local community in 2015/16.