Press releases

In June, Warehouse Manager Simon Carter had to take to social media to ask foodbank supporters to start donating pasta and beans – the first time he had to ask this in his many years at the warehouse.

This year alone, the food bank has been forced to spend nearly £30,000 buying essential food items to create food parcels. A recent stock-take has shown that Southend Foodbank ended March with less than a week’s stock for most of their food.

Southend Foodbank is facing an unprecedented shortfall between donations of food and the amount needed to provide 3-day food parcels for people turning to the foodbank, leading to record amounts of money being spent on food purchases.

Southend Foodbank has released its three quarter-year statistics, highlighting the number of people needing a food parcel in the area so far this year.  The figures are breaking all records, with September 2022 being the busiest month since the foodbank opened in 2013.

Southend Foodbank has released its half-year statistics, highlighting the number of people needing a food parcel in the area through the first half of 2022. The figures look stark, with 56.4% more referrals being made to the Foodbank in January to June this year, than in the same period of 2021.

Round up from the 21/22 season.

New figures released by Southend Foodbank today reveal 9,284 emergency food parcels were provided to local people who couldn’t afford the essentials between April 2021 and March 2022 – 4,255 of these went to children. This number of parcels is a 42% increase on 2019-20.