A ‘reverse advent calendar’ to encourage food bank donations after Christmas during the tough January month has been launched.
The Bedford Foodbank asked people to save an item each day in December to donate after Christmas when the general public have tightened their purse strings.
Sarah Broughton, project manager, said January could be a “bleak month” as many people had spent their money during the festive period.
She said: "People are so generous up to Christmas, but donations drop off into the New Year, which is understandable.
"Everyone needs to tighten their belts in January and they also spend more on heating and lighting."
The calendar is a list of the 24 most needed items, including foods such as tinned fruit, jam, squash, tinned meat and tinned rice pudding.
Official figures indicate there are now more than 2,000 food banks across the UK, the majority of which are run by the charity The Trussell Trust.
The Trussel Trust says the number of people requiring three-day emergency food parcels rose to 823, 145 between April-September in 2018 compared to 658,048 in 2018.
The three most common causes for families relying on food banks are low income, benefit delays and benefit changes. Other reasons include debt, homelessness and no access to public funds.
Wendie Harvey, the chief executive of Bedford-based charity Family and Children's Early-help Services (Faces), said: "People just don't realise how hard January is as most families have spent the money they have making sure the children have something."
The charity feeds about 650 people a month - and handed out 3,500 food parcels in the last 12 months.
Donations can be taken to the foodbank's warehouse on 2, 3, 6 and 10 January.
