DROITWICH Liberal Democrats have raised their concerns over the levels of poverty in the town after seeing an increase in the amount of people using the food bank.
A Lib Dem team made up of candidates Ann Hickman, Rod Hopkins, Paul Wiseman and Margaret Rowley met up with Droitwich Spa Food bank’s project leader David Adams to discuss the situation.
Most alarmingly they discovered 792 local children had been reliant on the food bank, based at Droitwich Baptist Church, each day in the last year.
Mr Wiseman said: “It’s unbelievable. Charles Dickens would have a field day writing books now.
“Who wants to say ‘I can’t provide my children with something to eat’ – nobody wants to say that.”
The Lib Dems claim the situation is worse than even figures suggest, due to a lot of food poverty being under-reported.
Leader at the Droitwich Foodbank Mary Stanbury said: “We’re so busy because people are on low incomes, homelessness is going up and the controversial Universal Credit is a major factor.
“The number of children relying on our foodbank is going up year on year.”
Droitwich Foodbank is open every Tuesday between 12.30pm and 2.30pm, and every Friday between 2 and 4pm.
For more information head to – www.trusselltrust.org/get-help/find-a-foodbank/droitwichspa