WEST SOMERSET food banks reported this week that never has their help been so welcome as families struggle to put food on the table at Christmas due to benefit payment cuts and rising costs.

Hundreds of families are already receiving Christmas dinner deliveries at a time when, according to a new report from the Somerset Community Foundation, one in five adults is either hungry or “having problems accessing sufficient food”, and families are having to choose whether to buy food or pay bills.

Marlene Mason, co-ordinator of the Watchet-based Quantock Food Bank, said that many families were in crisis this Christmas and needed help but didn’t want people to know how serious their problems were.

“Sadly, the level of deprivation in West Somerset is very high,” she said. At the West Somerset Food Cupboard in Alcombe, Minehead, a team of 12 volunteers has been working flat-out to complete the Christmas deliveries as well as sending out a range of food bags and family food boxes worth £30-40 and designed to feed a family of four for three days.

Ali Sanderson, Food Cupboard co-ordinator, said that demand for food parcels had increased in the past few weeks, largely due to the drop in Universal Credit and rising energy costs.

She added: “We provided 55% more food in November than in October this year and well over 1,000 food parcels have been supplied by the West Somerset Food Cupboard during 2021, because no-one should go hungry.”

For the full story see this week’s West Somerset Free Press.