A frontline nurse was left living off food parcels after 'long covid' left her unable to work and provide for her family.
Volunteers and staff at the L6 Centre in Everton have been bombarded with requests for help, as the ongoing pandemic continues to leave families in desperate situations.
One harrowing story, told to the ECHO by centre manager Shirley Marshall involved a frontline NHS nurse who was left struggling to feed her family.
The nurse contracted coronvirus and continued to suffer from side effects brought about by long-covid, which meant she was unable to work.
As the breadwinner for the household, an extended stretch without work caused mortgage payments to pile up, meaning she was forced to turn to food vouchers.
Shirley said: "I ensured she got a leg of lamb, a ham, a piece of turkey and a piece of beef for Christmas and she phoned me crying to thank me.
"I just found it absolutely appalling that she was on the frontline fighting for us and she's been left and reduced to this.
"She can't afford to lose the roof over her house, but that's leaving her without food."
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The lifeline community centre, run by Labour councillor Gerrard Woodhouse, has been instrumental in helping people for years, but it has seen more people than ever turn to its services since the pandemic.
The L6 centre was initially opened to provide traditional community activities such as afternoon tea and socials.
However over the years it has increasingly become one of the most important places in the city for hard-hit families to seek help.
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Manager Shirley Marshall told the ECHO: "We're being inundated. We're right back to [what it was like ] last March again now, but without the sunshine and the warmth.
"Children need hot food. In the summer you can get away with eating less, everybody seems to. But when it's freezing cold, people want to eat more. As soon as we came back from Christmas rush, all we've done is get food parcels out there."
With so many people losing their jobs or feeling their budgets shrink due to furlough pay, the centre has been inundated with requests for help.
And with children being home-schooled, many are missing out on their usual free school meals, breakfast clubs and after school clubs.
The Government agreed to provide meals for children during lockdown thanks to a remarkable campaign by Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford last year.
However the Tories were blasted again after numerous examples of woefully inadequate food parcels, provided by private firms contracted by the Government to deliver the scheme.
Shirley said: "I've had emergencies from social workers and they're saying 'can this be a priority?' - but they're all priorities to me.
"I've been in people's homes and they have got no food at all. Nothing, people have got nothing at all. They've got nothing and it's absolutely disgraceful."
Speaking about the food offered to children, Shirley said: "When I saw that photo on social media I went berserk. I thought it was unacceptable and I told people not to suffer in silence. That night I think I had 85 messages and it continues. I'm bombarded with emails and private message from people needing support.
"People have no income, no hope and nothing to look forward to. We don't know when it's going to end and there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
"There's children sleeping with a blanket over them instead of a quilt, because that's all their mum can afford. There's no heating on and they've got to wake up and start the day, locked down. It's just beyond belief how people are living."
As well as helping people across the region, the L6 Centre has also worked to provide children with iPads and laptops to learn at home.
And in the last lockdown, it provided classrooms with toasters, bread, butter and fruit for morning snacks and estimated around 9,000 children may have benefited from donations in November and October.
The L6 Centre will offer help to anyone in Merseyside struggling with poverty, who is referred by a third party such as the police, teachers, GPs and healthcare workers or other organisations.
Shirley said anyone wanting to donate or volunteer is welcome to, and the centre also has a gofundme page.
Anyone wishing to donate to the charity can do so here.
