As the cost of living crisis bites, Chesterfield food bank is opening a new branch for the Hope Valley.
Starting next Thursday it’ll be based at St Helens Church in Grindleford, but it’ll also cover places including Hathersage, Baslow, Hope, Edale, and Eyam.
Foodbanks provide emergency food parcels to people in crisis. The need for such parcels is increasing rapidly throughout the UK. There has been an 81% increase in demand from five years ago and a 14% increase from 2019-20 (Trussell Trust 2022). At Chesterfield Foodbank we saw a 30% increase in the number of people we supported in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period last year, with 25% of the people we supported sadly being children.
In Derbyshire the number of food banks has increased from one in 2009 to 36 in 2022 (Rural Action Derbyshire 2022).
Relatively affluent rural areas, such as the Hope Valley, can ‘hide ‘local need.
The new foodbank is being set up amid concerns that there are families in the Hope Valley area who are experiencing significant financial hardship which is expected to worsen as the cost-of-living crisis deepens this autumn.
North Derbyshire Radio spoke to Roisin 0’Gorman from Chesterfield Foodbank
