A SOUTH Cumbrian food bank is facing the possibility of closing down following a surge in demand and reduction in number of monetary donations.

Windermere & District Foodbank needs around £2,000 per month to maintain delivering food packages across Ambleside, Bowness, Kendal and further afield.  

They currently only have supplies for the next three months and need at least six months' worth of supply to stay afloat.

Ian Winters, the team lead, says they are competing with other charities in a similar boat.

He said: “We’ve got an increasing number of referrals from women’s refuge, mental health teams, doctors’ surgeries, the probation service, as well as from clients walking through the door who need help.

“We need monetary donations because we have to buy in approximately half of our stock.

“Smaller supermarkets such as SPAR in Bowness have been donating bread and other items to us so we’re trying to reduce the number of purchases that we have to make.

“At the moment, we’re just keeping our heads above water. That’s the kind of situation we are dealing with.”

The Windermere foodbank, located inside The Methodist Church Basement, Main Rd, Windermere, say they had to make ‘awful decisions’ on who they could and couldn’t feed six weeks ago.

“If a three-month emergency support grant from The Trussell Trust didn’t materialise, we would have been in a position of telling people we were unable to support them,” Mr Winters said.

“At the minute, I would suggest we probably have around five months’ worth of income, which isn’t where we need to be. We need to be at six months’ worth of reserves to have a long-term strategy.”

In 2023, when the foodbank was formed, six parcels were distributed each week. Now, the foodbank helps around 60 people on average per week with essential food parcels.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron blamed the ‘crisis’ on the Government.

Mr Farron said: “This is a stark reminder that a cost-of-living crisis also results in a cost of giving crisis.

“People who I know up until a few years ago were regular givers to food banks, now they have to go to them themselves.

“Governing is all about choices and sadly I think the Government’s decision to cut the Winter Fuel Allowance and to keep the two-child benefit cap is pushing more people into poverty.

“The decisions that the Chancellor makes in the budget will be critical for our local foodbanks and for the people who rely on them.”

Mr Winters believes people’s perception of Windermere needs to change.

“The cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone,” he said.

“People see Windermere and automatically think it’s affluent because there’s lots of high property prices and tourists. They think we don’t need a food bank, but we have to overcome this perception because there is most definitely a need.”

The Government says it is helping vulnerable people across the UK with the costs of energy, food and water this winter through its five hundred-million-pound Household Support Fund.

The Trussell Trust, a national foodbank charity, believes more than nine million people will turn to using food banks during the winter - one million more users than five years ago.

Mr Winters added: “The Trussell Trust’s stated goal of success is when your food bank closes down because you no longer need it, but the reality is that won’t happen because food banks don’t have enough money.

“We’re putting everything we can into it with our team of volunteers.

“We’re relying on the kindness of people to keep going. It would be absolutely awful if we had to close down due to lack of funds.

“I hope we’ll be able to win this battle.”