North Tyneside foodbank in need of longterm support after increase of demand

The Bay Food Bank in North Shields has sent 50,000 emergency food parcels to people who need it in the community. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

One of the region's largest foodbank's is hoping for more long-term help.

The Bay Food Bank, founded in 2012, serves the whole of North Tyneside. They have said that while demand is increasing, donations are falling.

A typical day at the North Shields site can see anywhere from 30-50 emergency food parcels delivered to people who need them.

This month they have spent £30,000 buying food products for their parcels, as well as hitting delivering 50,000 food parcels to people in the community.

Maggie Walker, trustee at The Bay Foodbank said: “We have seen a huge increase in the amount of families that we are serving, the cost of living crisis has had a huge impact on our region in particular.

"We dealing with a 45% year-on-year reduction in the amount of physical food donations compared with a consistent rise in demand for our services. We are projected to spend over £100,000 on food alone in 2023."

A day's worth of food for a person in financial crisis costs the food bank approximately £4.50.

One local business has pledged it's long-term support to the foodbank. Retailer For the Love of the North have said they will donate the same amount from the sale of every adult garment, either online or in-store, for the entire year.

Co-owners Lucy and Paul Hull started working with the Bay Food Bank in 2021 on a series of smaller projects, before deciding to create a longer term initiative that would directly benefit families in their local community.

Ms Hull said: “We have a longstanding relationship with the charity, we have seen the increased need in North Tyneside and knew that we wanted to do something really meaningful to support the incredible work that they do.

"We spoke to the team about what would add the most value, and with the dramatic increase in people accessing their services and food donations decreasing in the recent months, this commitment seemed like the best way to make lasting impact, rather than a one-off donation."

  • Watch Julia Breen's report here.

Speaking about the partnership, Ms Walker said: "Support like this from For the Love of the North is incredible and allows us to continue to deliver services across North Tyneside, including breakfast clubs for local schools."

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