Mums going without food so they can feed kids as foodbanks struggle with donations

By Tara O’Connor, Local Democracy Reporter

Croydon mums are regularly going without food as they struggle to feed their children, according to a local foodbank, which has seen a huge surge in demand.

Tracey Davis has run Guiding Hands, a not-for-profit that is focussed on helping mums, since 2016.

Every Friday, the charity opens a foodbank handing out bags to mums in need. The mum are referred by places like the Job Centre and local schools.

It also runs a self-referral service where people can sign up for a £7.50 crate which should last a family of four for five days.

Tracey said mums regularly go without eating to feed their kids, and fears the problem will get worse in coming months as the cost of living crisis worsens.

She said: “It is like the pandemic all over again but on a different scale. In the pandemic a lot of it wasn’t about not having food. It was about managing to get the food but it is more pronounced now.

“It is about how they can survive and it’s about feeding their family and being able to feed them healthily. They just can’t afford to go out and buy the food.”

The free bags used to be capped at 16 or 18 but demand means this has now been upped to 26 with others on a waiting list.

“Some of them really struggle over the weekend and especially over the half term,” Tracey said. “People are really desperate, there are families who can’t even pay the £7.50, I don’t know how they would manage if they didn’t have somebody like us.

“I think even though energy prices have gone up it hasn’t gone up as much as it will, everyone is putting off putting the heating on. It hasn’t hit home yet.”

And the cost of living crisis is affecting how many donations the charity receives. It is having to reach out to more shops to fill the gap and buy items itself.

Tracey said: “We have a yellow bin outside the hub but it is rarely full now, people haven’t even got the money to give donations, we’re more reliant on the shops.”

While the service is only open on Fridays, Tracey said she would never turn away a mum in need at other times of the week.

She said: “All the time we hear about parents going without eating. I don’t like to hear it, it doesn’t have to be like that.

And with things so tight some people don’t turn up to collect their free food bags as they can’t even afford the bus ride there.

Tracey said ideally she would like to deliver these bags but doesn’t have the resources to do so.

Pictured top: Tracey Davis runs Guiding Hands in Croydon (Picture: Jordan Mansfield)