News
Our food bank sees busiest December in 11 years
27th January 2025
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We’re incredibly thankful for the generosity, compassion and kindness of all our supporters and volunteers during what turned out to be an exceptionally busy December, our busiest December ever.
In the just over three weeks that Wandsworth Foodbank was open before Christmas, we provided 1,522 emergency food supplies to local people referred to us in hardship – concerningly, 69% of these went to households with children.
Income not covering essential costs, the impact of mental or physical health conditions, and priority debt (eg Council Tax and rent arrears or energy debt) were the key drivers of food bank need.
Across our six welcome centres, individuals and families told us what a difference the help made that they received, and – thanks to local people’s generosity – it was great to be able to give Christmas treats, Christmas supermarket gift cards, prepayment fuel vouchers, and even some toy shop vouchers (for families in Putney/Roehampton, thanks to a generous donation of toy vouchers from churches in Putney), alongside emergency food and essential toiletries.
Alongside immediate support, we’re glad to be able to offer expert advice and support from our Foodbank Advice Project, well-being support from our food bank well-being project with Family Action, and signposting to other local sources of hardship support – for instance crisis grants for food and fuel from Wandsworth Council.
As we look forward, we sadly don’t see any signs of local hardship and need for emergency food lessening (without policy and provision improvements from national government). We’ll continue to advocate for change alongside Trussell’s national community of food banks, and meanwhile – with your help – we’ll continue to welcome and support each person and family referred to us in need.