ALMOST 14,000 people used Colchester Foodbank over the past year including more than 6,000 children.

Foodbank boss Michael Beckett said he was worried the service would become “overwhelmed” after demand skyrocketed during the pandemic.

The foodbank, which is based at the Tollgate Retail Park in Stanway and is the busiest in Essex, saw a 300 per cent increase in demand for food in the first weeks of the Covid pandemic.

Over the past year there has been a 47 per cent increase in residents of all ages helped from across the Colchester borough – a total just shy of 14,000 people.

Gazette: Items you can help the Foodbank withItems you can help the Foodbank with

Figures have also revealed 683 children were fed in March 2020, more than double the number of March 2019 at 310.

Mr Beckett said staff were “exhausted”as winter 2019 ended but worked to get a number of plans into place for the upcoming year, including an emergency plan.

Just weeks later and this was already in action as Mr Beckett’s volunteer workforce dropped from 150 to 50 due to shielding and social distancing concerns.

“We initially had a lot of volunteers with high morale and a low turnover of staff, suddenly we lost nearly all of this,” said Mr Beckett.

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“We rode the rollercoaster but it was really hard, we didn’t know how we would cope. We did absolutely everything we could to keep the foodbank’s head above the water and just tried to get through it.

“The people who visit us are worried. Some want to talk about it and we provide a listening ear, others are just about holding it together and others will let their guard down and open up.

“I think the thing which makes us different is we are trying to ensure people aren’t dependent on us.

“If someone is stuck down a hole, throwing food at them keeps them down that hole. We are analysing the wider issues to see how they ended up there.

“When people were having to stay at home and had no means of earning extra money they were worried - how would they survive the month?

“The question is now - what will winter be like? There’s a lot of pressure coming.”

The Foodbank is particularly after long life juice; long life milk; tins of custard; tins of rice pudding; washing powder

To help, visit www.facebook.com/FoodBankColchester.