A FOOD bank in Christchurch say they are 'desperate for everything' as their shelves have been emptied due to relentless demand.

It comes as the food bank's manager said she had been to see a mother and two children who had been sat without electricity and lighting for four days.

In a post on social media Christchurch Food Bank appealed to the public for donations: "Please help. Our shelves are looking empty. As we help lots of new faces in our community it’s taking a huge toll on our stock. Christmas generosity has stopped, we are desperate for everything."

Manager Tracy Blick explained the situation: "The biggest issue, as always, is everybody gives really generously for Christmas time and then Christmas is over and people stop giving.

"January is normally quite a quiet time but this January it hasn’t stopped and we’ve been busy every single session we've been open.

"The giving has gone right back to a low level but our client base is still high."

Ms Blick says now is a crucial time for people to keep donating as the cost of living crisis takes hold.

"I went out to a mum on Monday with food to be delivered to a Covid family and the mum and her two children had been sat with no electric and no lighting since Friday and that shouldn't be happening in our towns.

"So we gave her food and I then took her card and her key and topped her electric and gas up.

"And this is before all these utilities are going to be going sky high in April, I mean that is shocking and it's going to get worse and that's really really sad, so really I just want people to keep being generous.

Speaking about the future of the food bank Ms Blick said: "I put that call out today and we had two people we don't know that filled their trollies up and filled our food bank boxes up at Sainsburys this morning, which is great but that will only feed our clients tomorrow.

"The money we keep aside for things like fuel and nappies and baby milk, all those extra things, we're now dipping into that to actually buy tins of fruit and tinned curry and that's not going to last forever.

"That's where we start to panic, our donations really need to take a lift to fill our shelves back up.

"This is the first time I've seen our shelves empty now since last summer when we had the summer holidays.

"And we know because of fuel increase and because of increase in living costs we know that demand is going to be going up, it's certainly not going to be levelling off."

Ms Blick says the most productive way to help is to buy a bag of shopping and donate it to the food bank.

Food items currently needed include: UHT Milk, fruit juice/squash, pasta, sauce jars, hot dog sausages, meatballs, custard and rice pudding tins, rice, baked beans, tinned carrots, and corn, tinned soup, coffee, tea, tinned fruit, tinned corned beef and ham, tinned tuna, meat meals, curry, stew, snacks, crisps and chocolate bars.

The team also give fresh fruit and veg to every visitor and cheese, ham, bread and butter to every family.

Donations can also be made through the Christchurch Food Bank website at http://faithworkswessex.org.uk/projects/foodbank/christchurch-food-bank/ or through Paypal.