Foodbank to support New Cross through “crisis period”

The Parish Church of St. James, Hatcham. Pic: Alex Taylor

The Trussell Trust is opening a new foodbank centre in St James Church in New Cross next week.

The past 12 months have seen a record number of clients over the organisation’s 14-year history. From November 17, the new centre will be open between midday and 2pm every Monday. This will be in addition to the We Care foodbank operating on New Cross Road.

In an article published in August it was revealed that Lewisham had the highest number of people using foodbanks across the ELL area at 2,600. Hackney was second with 2,000 visiting between April and December in 2013.

The New Cross site has been dubbed the “missing piece of the jigsaw” by Carol Bostridge, Chief Operating Officer of the Lewisham foodbank. This is due to the lack of a Trussell-run foodbank in the New Cross area at present. The organisation currently has foodbanks based in Catford, Sydenham and Lewisham.

Across the UK, the Trussell Trust runs over 420 foodbanks with 913,138 being fed by them. Of that number 330,205 are children.

Bostridge says they have fed more than 2,500 people this year. Clients are permitted to visit the foodbanks three times in a six month period to help them through a “crisis period” but the figure continues to rise and numbers are expected to increase from last year.

This story was amended on November 12 to clarify the fact that the We Care foodbank is currently operating in New Cross.

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