CARDIGAN Foodbank is facing ‘unprecedented’ demand with a surge in the number of families coming through the door for help.

From April up until the end of August, 598 people have been to the foodbank run by the Trussell Trust from the New Life Christian Centre on Quay Street for help, compared to 379 the previous year – a rise of 219 people. Last month alone, 107 people visited, compared to 61 last year.

Alan Faunch, one of the managers at the foodbank, said: “Demand is continuing to grow and already we have seen more than 200 people that we did last year. We have been run off our feet during the summer.

“We knew we had been busy but when we actually looked at the figures it was scary. I think more people are getting to know we are here but the families that are now coming here are in dire need and it’s unprecedented.”

Part of the rise can be explained by the kids being off school during the summer holidays, with many finding their budgets stretched to provide a hot meal. It also has a lot to do with benefit changes and that is having a massive impact.

A survey by Oxford University commissioned by the Trussell Trust found that 78 per cent of foodbank users are ‘severely food insecure’ meaning they had skipped meals and gone without eating - sometimes for days at a time. Also, more than half those households surveyed could not afford heating or toiletries

“We had a family in on Monday where the husband is in full-time work, but now the kids have gone back to school they fall just outside the category for free school meals and cannot afford to pay and their budget is being really stretched,” said Mr Faunch.

“I don’t know where it will end and there is no answer but I think the government now sees food banks as a necessity

“We are also aware of many people in the rural areas and villages who have no way of getting here but the cost for us to get to them is virtually impossible. The logistics just do not work and the rural areas seem to be really suffering.

“We could not keep helping people without the generosity of the local community, and with harvest festivals coming up we have churches and groups ready to collect food from that. For such a small town as Cardigan, the response is very generous.”

Ceredigion MP Ben Lake said: "The rise in the number of foodbank users in Cardigan is deeply concerning. Most worrying is the fact that many ?of the people forced to turn to their local foodbank are in fact in employment.

"This shows how Wales's low-wage economy is leaving thousands of people trapped in in-work poverty.

"The kindness of the people of Cardigan who have donated to the foodbank with such generosity must be commended, but the reality of the situation is that people shouldn't have to turn to charity in order to feed themselves or their family in one of the wealthiest nations in the world.

"The Westminster government's austerity agenda has seen those with the least punished the most. This destructive course must be abandoned in favour of a system which invests in infrastructure in order to grow the economy and in turn ensures that workers are paid a fair wage for full day's work."

Items currently needed by the foodbank are: tinned cooked/cold meat; tinned veg; tinned tomatoes; tinned potatoes; long grain rice; coffee; squash; jelly/whips/sponge puddings; toiletries.

It is also in need of plastic bags.