North Norfolk Foodbank makes supermarket runs for first time

Peter Wenham, the foodbank's chairman, said fewer donations of groceries were being made, meaning it had to delve into its own cash reserves to pay for food people desperately needed.

Mr Wenham said: “We want to say thank you for all the support everyone has so generously given us in the past. 

“We have noticed from our recent stocktakes, that the donations people are giving us are going down, obviously because of the climate in the country. 

READ MORE: North Norfolk Foodbank to offer Citizens Advice appointments

A volunteer at work at North Norfolk Foodbank (Image: Sonya Duncan)

“On a weekly basis we’re having to go to supermarket to purchase beans, tinned tomatoes and other items that we could have relied on the public for donations of in the past. 

“In the past seven or eight years this is the first time we’ve had to do it on a regular basis.”

Mr Wenham said the food bank visited several supermarkets so it did not “clear shelves” of essential items, and aimed to buy branded products, rather than supermarkets’ own varieties, which were cheaper. 

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Mr Wenham said demand for the foodbank itself had risen by 48pc since November last year, and they were seeing more people returning for help than ever before. 

He said: “Before we’d see people two or three times and never see them again. Now there are people we’ve seen over a dozen times, and we can’t turn them away because they have nowhere else to go.

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“We want to bring to people’s attention that the problem we are trying to solve is not going away and we would be grateful for any more support people could give us.”

The food bank now has its own Citizens Advice officer assigned to it, who is based at the Cromer Methodist Church Hall.

To find out more about the food bank and where to make a donation, visit northnorfolk.foodbank.org.uk