RINGWOOD Foodbank has seen a spike in demand with more people in need of support during the coronavirus pandemic.

In March, the food bank, which has distribution centres in Ringwood, Fordingbridge and Verwood, provided food for 353 people – an increase of 31 per cent compared to March last year. And this increase in demand is expected to continue.

The chair of the trustees at Ringwood Foodbank, Chris Lee, said: “Even at this stage it looks like there will be a higher percentage increase in April.

“We have supplied food to those ill with the virus, who have lost income due to lockdown and those who, due to ill health or low income, are struggling to support their families. Whilst we have reasonable stocks of food we are running out of individual items. We remain grateful for the donations of food that we continue to receive.”

People can still donate food at supermarket collection points. The foodbank is also receiving donations of food from Morrisons and is expecting to start receiving a weekly delivery from Tesco in the future. It is also able to offer fresh food as a result of a partnership with Fareshare.

Chris added: “We are grateful for the continuing flow of financial donations, which we are using to purchase food items that we are short of. We anticipate we will need to do more of this in the near future.

“We also anticipate that significant funding will be needed for a considerable period after the reduction in the coronavirus threat due to the recession that is predicted to follow.”

As a result of the pandemic, referrals are now made by email and food parcels are delivered to client’s homes.

“We are very grateful to Ringwood Coronavirus Assistance, British Gas, Churches Together in Bransgore and Verwood, Community First New Forest and Fordingbridge in Need for their kind offers to assist with deliveries,” said Chris.

He added: “Regrettably we have lost about 50 per cent of our volunteers to self isolation but those that remain allow us to continue to staff our distribution centres at Ringwood, Fordingbridge and Verwood and our warehouse. We are very conscious that those volunteers still staffing our facilities are increasing the risk to themselves and their families and we are grateful to them for their continued support. We continue to do all we can to reduce that risk.”

For more information go to ringwood.foodbank.org.uk

  • Ellingham and Ringwood Rugby Club kick-started its new initiative to support Ringwood Foodbank during the coronavirus outbreak. The initiative is being led by the club’s director of rugby, Mark Johnson. The club will be opening on Saturday mornings between 9am and 12 noon so club members and people from the wider community can drop contributions off in the car park.