Sheffield Foodbanks and Warm Hubs preparing for difficult winter with demand already on the up

The cost of living crisis has meant Chris Hardy is seeing more people coming to the Sheffield S6 Foodbank than in years prior. The group has handed out around 475 parcels in the last seven days, which is a 20 increase over the week before. Chris predicts over the “darker months” of January, February and March, the Foodbank could be providing help for 500 families every week, roughly 2,000 people.

Rising energy bills means they have opened a warm hub over the last few weeks in order to offer people a space to come and socialise and keep warm, as some struggle to heat their own homes. Equipment in the hub has been donated by restaurants and businesses from across the country, including a barista standard coffee machine, which will allow people to train as baristas and find work.

In this video, Chris shares how the team are preparing for the coming months and how they hope to help those who need it most. To donate to the Sheffield S6 Foodbank to help them keep stocked up, click here.

Last month, The Star’s parent company, National World, launched its Trussell Trust foodbank support campaign.

The Trussell Trust is a charity with a network of more than 1,300 food bank centres across the UK with 40,000 volunteers working tirelessly round the clock to make sure people facing hunger can access the food and support they need. Like the S6 Foodbank, they are the safety net that is catching people struggling to get by.

This winter is going to be the toughest yet for food banks though as they are faced with a tsunami of need and soaring operational costs, and they cannot respond to this crisis alone - they urgently need your support.

The charity’s long term goal is a future without emergency food, where everyone has the income and support they need to get by, but right now they are focused on ensuring that everyone has access to food.

Every penny raised by the Trussell Trusts emergency appeal will go towards helping food banks keep going this winter.

Across our family of newspapers, we aim to raise as much money as we can to support this vital charity this winter. The money raised will go directly to food banks to ensure that anyone who needs a helping hand this winter gets it.