In acramped office on an industrial unit off Western Road in Deal, Deal Area Emergency Foodbank Project coordinator Sheila Ward sits at her desk, a phone in one hand, her head in the other and a look of concern on her face as she takes the umpteenth call of the morning. It’s a familiar sight to anyone who’s spent any time at DAEF HQ, where the phone rarely stops ringing these days. After just a minute the call ends and Sheila takes a moment to collect herself before rising energetically from her chair, the frown quickly replaced with a bright, warm smile as she apologises for keeping me waiting.
Established in 2012 with support from its parent charity the
Trussell Trust, DAEF’s primary function has been to collect food donations for distribution to those in need in the CT14 (Deal, Walmer, Kingsdown), CT3 (Aylsham, Wingham, Hersden) and CT13 (Sandwich, Eastry) postcode areas. There are now three paid members of staff and 70 volunteers.
DAEF partners with care providers in these areas, including social workers, community wardens and school family liaison officers, to identify those in need of support and then provide them with vouchers which can be redeemed for three days’ worth of emergency food. Currently over 2,000 people a year are being helped in this way, but demand is rising all the time, more rapidly in recent months.
We’re not talking for long before the look of concern returns as Sheila tells me, “We’re seeing a lot more people in urgent need.” She recalls just recently sitting in the passenger seat of a client’s car as he “gripped the steering wheel so hard, trying not to cry because he felt ashamed that I was giving him some money”. Another client had been left “emaciated” after surviving for weeks on just one meal a day until someone suggested they contact their local foodbank. While another, almost unbelievably, had resorted to eating cat food as it was all they had left.
Such stories are all too common here, sadly. And with the crushing combination of high inflation and weak economic growth – if not outright recession – forecast for the foreseeable future, the situation shows signs of only deteriorating further.
“We’re all feeling extremely apprehensive,” Sheila says, describing the mood among staff and volunteers. “We have a lot of contact with people, and listening to their stories, I just don’t know how people are going to cope. I just see the need increasing horribly over the next few months, especially as the weather gets cold.”
One way to help people cope is through its government-funded Household Support Fund, with two £40,000 instalments allocated to the foodbank by Dover District Council, the first arriving in January this year, the second in July. This allows DAEF to offer help for individuals and families with utility bills, school uniforms and other essentials, going only to those in the most difficult of circumstances.
Sheila describs one recipient of HSF funds as, “Someone who we just thought, we’ve neve seen someone in such need and distress.” A few hours after providing him with an HSF grant, she saw him again in Poundland “with a big bag full of stuff for his kitchen, you know, things we take for granted like washing up cloths and liquid. His face just beamed. He hadn’t realised that food banks could help him. And that’s the whole point. We need to get the message out. Foodbanks do help people.”
The first tranche of the HSF has already been used, however, and the second is running down rapidly, meaning it is unlikely to last long into the winter.