Cost of living crisis: Barrow foodbank usage goes up

Over the past year the number of users has gone from 4,701 to 6,211 due to the cost of living crisis.

Head of Marketing Jayne Moorby said: "We’ve seen a significant increase in foodbank use, this includes a lot of new people needing to use our service, mainly people who have fallen below the poverty line due to the cost of living crisis and significantly rising energy prices.

"This increase covers all types of people including elderly, vulnerable and young families, and we support a lot of people with children."

Ms Moorby explained that the economic situation has had a double impact on the foodbank, with more people needing them but less food being available.

"Donations from individuals have reduced dramatically but we are still collecting notable amount from supermarkets," she said.

"We have been purchasing some certain food items over the last few months as we have almost ran out of them completely and we have had to do a few social media campaigns for shortages."

Val Robinson and Claire Coulthurst were nominated for Cumbria Woman of the Year for their work with the foodbank (Image: Jayne Moorby)

She went on to say that the organisation is still well supported by its volunteers, two of which were recognised for their work last week.

Project manager Claire Coulthurst and treasurer Val Robinson were invited to the Cumbria Woman of the Year awards ceremony last Wednesday.

Speaking about Ms Coulthurst, Ms Moorby said: "Many times, she's worked weekends and evenings, opening up the foodbank to give urgent support to desperate families or hosted events in school holidays to ensure children are well fed when families are struggling.

"And Val is a wonderful person who constantly goes above and beyond for the Furness community."

If you would like to help the foodbank, the best place to start is through their website.