THE ENNISKILLEN Foodbank is bracing itself for its busiest Christmas yet, with more and more Fermanagh families needing to avail of its services.
According to manager John Shades, the foodbank has already helped hundreds more local people this year than it did for the entirety of last year. That might not seem significant in December, but the foodbank runs on the financial year, from April to April, and its numbers do not yet include those who will need help over Christmas.
“From the April 1st until today we had 1,217 individual bags. Last year it was 1,019 the whole year,” said Mr Shades, who explained bags were tailored for the size of each family. For example, a family of four would be given a bag with food for four people.
Mr Shades added: “Our numbers will go up because we do hampers at Christmas. Each of our hampers is enough food for four.
“We gave away 346 hampers last year, and we’re looking at probably doing over 400 this year.”
While there are many reasons a family may need the help of the foodbank, Mr Shades said one of the biggest drivers was Universal Credit.
“This year our numbers are much higher and I would say the biggest common denominator is universal credit,” he said. “It’s meant to take up to five weeks to get your benefits, and a lot of times we’ve seen it be nearer to eight to 12 weeks.”
Another reason the foodbank is busier than usual is because the team have been taking the show on the road this year, holding ‘pop-up’ foodbanks around the county, such as Irvinestown, Ballinamallard and Newtownbutler.
Mr Shades said, given that public transport is sparse in some areas and that it costs money to travel, it had been “inhibitive” but now the foodbank was reaching more people.
Stating the community had been “absolutely incredible” in supporting the charity, Mr Shades said anyone who wanted to donate could drop items into the foodbank itself or to the trolleys in Asda and Tesco.
He added you can check the foodbank’s Facebook page to find you what’s in short supply.
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