Jade’s story

‘I’ve been unemployed for the past couple of years – before that I’d been employed all my life. After my dad’s death I fell off the rails a bit due to depression and anxiety.

‘I’m on universal credit and I’ve been using the food bank for the past three months. If I didn’t have it I’m not sure what I’d do for food right now. Because of my mental health condition, asking for help is difficult, so the food bank provides me with a safe space to be able to talk and to find help, especially with Citizens Advice, which helped me get my studio flat.

‘I spend two hours there every week. It doesn’t take two hours to pick up my food parcel, but there are so many kind, caring people that dedicate their time to speak to people who don’t often have conversation or can feel lost and lonely.’

 

As told to Kim Thomas, The Guardian in ‘I wouldn’t have survived without it’: seven people on how food banks have supported them.