A Nottinghamshire foodbank is receiving 100 requests every week for food parcels - and the number is set to increase further as the economic downturn bites.
Arnold Foodbank manager Helen Lloyd warned the service is seeing more new users needing food than ever before and as the Government's coronavirus furlough system ends, demand will only rise.
But a new £100,000 scheme by local Rotary Clubs is providing a vital lifeline for Arnold Foodbank and others across the region.
Sherwood Sunrisers Rotary Club’s Val Leivers said: “Organisations like Arnold Foodbank do brilliant work at local level in the community. They rely for supplies on the support of supermarkets, businesses and the general public making donations. As local Rotarians we wanted to help in a big way too. Delivering 150 cases of food supplies seemed a good way to do that.
“The Rotary4Foodbanks scheme, run entirely by volunteers, is an East Midlands and South Yorkshire initiative which pools funds and bulk buys staple food supplies at wholesale prices which it distributes to foodbanks across the region.
"By the end of July it will have distributed food with a wholesale value of around £100,000 and has plans to extend the scheme as demands on foodbanks continue to rise.”
Helen Lloyd, who heads a team of volunteers running the Arnold operation from Daybrook Baptist Church in Mansfield Road, said: “As the furlough system ends and more people face redundancy, we are expecting to see demand increase still further.
"We are bracing ourselves for the second wave.
"We enjoy marvellous support from local supermarkets and the general public but the additional help we are now getting from Rotary is proving a real lifeline, providing us with bulk supplies of key staples like tea, coffee, cereal and tinned fruit at a time of real need for so many vulnerable people locally.”
The Arnold team has been operating a delivery service during lockdown, with volunteer drivers ensuring people as far afield as Carlton and Basford who are unable to collect food parcels are still supported.
Since its formation in 1994, Sherwood Sunrisers Rotary Club has helped many thousands of people and raised more than £500,000 for good causes, most of which has been used to support community projects in Sherwood and Nottingham.
Rotary4foodbanks has launched a just giving page for anyone who want to donate here.
