“We’ve lost our household income and can’t afford to buy food. Are foodbanks still open during lockdown?”
It’s no surprise that food banks are facing increased demand during the coronavirus crisis. Lots of us have had to take a hit to our income, whether we’ve been furloughed, lost our jobs or had our hours cut back.
According to the latest government advice, food banks are allowed to remain open as long as social distancing rules are followed. What this means in practice, is that they probably can’t provide the same amount of food parcels as quickly as they would usually. But the Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest food bank network, have said: ‘We’re working closely with each and every food bank in our network to make sure that wherever possible they can continue to support people in crisis in their local communities.
Most of the major supermarkets have been donating large amounts of food to food banks since the coronavirus situation began, so there should be no shortage of food parcels to go around.
If you need to access a food bank, the best thing to do is go to the Trussel Trust site and pop your postcode into the foodbank finder on this page.
If you can’t find a nearby foodbank using the Trussell Trust website search tool, don’t worry. There are other food banks that aren’t part of the Trussell Trust network. The Food Aid network has mapped over eight hundred food banks around the UK. The best way to find your nearest food bank online is to put your town or local authority into google with the words food bank. This should bring up a few of your most local foodbanks.
There is more information on accessing food banks during the coronavirus crisis in this Frequently Asked Questions page on the Trussell Trust website.
For more info about food during the coronavirus crisis, have a look at the list of questions and answers on Corona-Finance section of the Quids in! magazine website here.
If you have a question that you can’t find the answer to on our site, you can ask us yourself by using the Corona-Finance Enquiry Form online.
