‘Food demand in Cumbria is unprecedented’

A food redistribution charity says it is struggling to cope with demand for those who need help across Cumbria.

Fareshare supplies millions of meals for communities across the country which are given out for free or at a reduced cost.

Three hundred tonnes (300,000kg) of surplus food was delivered across Cumbria last year, the charity says.

Naomi Winter, a Fareshare coordinator, said help was needed to get more vans on the road to meet demand in the region.

She said the need for free and heavily discounted food since the Covid-19 pandemic had been “unprecedented.”

“For Carlisle in particular, two vans come on a Wednesday because there’s such a need here,” she said.

“We would like to be able to put six more deliveries to the Carlisle area because we do have a few requests for that, but we don’t have any space in our vans to achieve that at the moment.”

Fareshare redistributes to charities and community groups food that would otherwise go to waste.

For Leanne Hackett, who has a five-year-old daughter, it makes a difference.

“I’m a single mum and I live on my own, it’s just me and my daughter so it really does help,” she said.

“You have just got to budget, I am quite good at budgeting anyway but you just cut back on things and get on with it.”

Diane Snedker is also a regular user and the food helps her offset the rising cost of living.

She said: “I come because it helps out, I know things are getting harder.

“I live on my own but sometimes I have the grandkids so I have to feed them as well.”

The charity is appealing for help from local charities and businesses so they can get three vans on the road to reach more people who need them in Carlisle and Cumbria.

Ms Winter said: “We need more charities to come on and we also need more food from the Cumbria area because we’ve had to reduce the amount of food that we give to each charity because supply isn’t meeting demand anymore.”