Bradford Foodbank is seeing a rise in demand as donations drop

Workers at a food bank in Bradford said it was receiving fewer donations even though demand for help had increased.

Charity Feedo Needo runs a service in the West Bowling area of ​​the city, helping around 800 people a month.

It relies heavily on deliveries from national charity FareShare, but said these had fallen in size.

FareShare urged any charity in need of help to get in touch, but warned that donations had been affected by factors including above-average rainfall affecting surplus produce.

Project Coordinator Catherine Faluyi has been working with Feedo Needo in Bradford since the beginning of the year.

She is in charge of six volunteers who run both a food bank and a homeless outreach service.

She said: “We are increasingly having an increase in demand for food supply.

“And we’re also seeing a decrease in what’s being donated or what’s being given to the food bank as well.

“There are major donations from a company called FareShare – they donate not just to Feedo Needo but to others in Braford – and there’s been a drop in some of the food we get.”

FareShare redistributes food waste from organizations including supermarkets and food manufacturers to a network of 8,500 charities and community groups across the UK.

A spokesman said it currently has more than 1,000 charities on its waiting list.

They said: “Furthermore, England has seen record levels of rainfall over the past 18 months, which has had an impact on UK crops, adding pressure on UK farmers and growers to deliver more produce.

“We’re working hard to access more surplus to support the charities we feed to and we’re grateful for the collaboration we’ve seen across the food industry and the produce industry to help us meet demand.”

It recently launched the Coronation Food Project with King Charles to identify more sources of surplus food.

More than 13 million people (9.3 million adults and 4 million children) faced food insecurity in January 2023, according to the charity Food Foundation.

This is just over 20% of the UK population, or one in five people.