Shelves almost bare at Holbeach food bank

A sharp increase in demand has left a Holbeach food bank in dire need of donations.

Holbeach Community Larder and Cafe provides food parcels to households in need.

Organiser the Rev Rosamund Seal said the rise in people forced to use the service has left them short on essentials.

“We are down to our last few boxes of cereal and last few tins of custard,” said Rev Seal.

In 2017, the group gave out 202 parcels to 97 households. Rev Seal said already this year the group has given out 64 parcels to 42 households, “which is already 20 more than in a similar period last year and we still have another six months to go before our Harvest appeal”.

Rev Seal said: “Though the schools and churches were massively generous back in October for Harvest and Tesco customers were phenomenally generous just before Christmas, we are now running out of several of our staple items.

“This is because we put together 40 hampers which were given out to families in need at Christmas and since Christmas there has been an unprecedented demand for food parcels.”

While ok for beans, soup and tea, the group urgently needs cereals, packets of savoury rice, tinned rice pudding, gravy granules, custard, pasta sauce, tinned tuna, tinned potatoes and savoury noodles.

Donations can be dropped off at the Holbeach Reading Rooms on Fridays between 10am and 2pm, or All Saints’ Church daily.

The group also runs a weekly cafe and is looking to recruit more volunteer cooks to help provide lunch for 30-40 people per week.