Like many Food Banks they have seen a decline in public food donations over the last 2 years.

In Monmouth, food donations have dropped by more than 30 percent and the reality is that for many people in crisis a Food Bank is quite literally a life saver.

People need a Food Bank simply because they don’t have enough money to live and eat. Parents often go without to put food on the table for their children.

Some examples from Monmouth over the last year of people who use the foodbank include:The self employed craftsman who had a serious accident and couldn’t work; The mother is on a zero hours contract without enough hours of work; The 59 year old who had never asked for anything in his life before he was made redundant; The family on benefits whose money ran out before the month did; The victim of domestic abuse who left home with nothing; The retired couple whose pension no longer covered their outgoings.

The Monmouth & District Food Bank offer people in need a warm welcoming place, a cup of tea and up to three emergency food parcels in a 6 month period.

Last year they helped over 1,000 people including more than 300 children with emergency food parcels.

They also partner with the Community Hub, Mind, Monmouth Housing Association & Christians Against Poverty to guide those in crisis to financial advice (including state benefits where appropriate).

You can help by just adding an extra item to your weekly shop and donating it will make a huge difference!

There’s a new mobile phone app to alert you our urgent food needs and our donation points.

BanktheFood is an amazing charity which provides a free mobile phone app to link food banks with donors at the most crucial time - when they are at the supermarket.

Click on the QR code to download the app which is kept up to date weekly with our current needs and prompts you when you’re at a local supermarket that has a donation point.

The BanktheFood app is very simple to use. Once you have input your post code and followed Monmouth & District Food Bank, the app will send you a helpful ‘ping’ with a reminder of our needs when you are shopping in your local supermarket.

You can then choose exactly what you would like to donate and leave your donation in the Monmouth & District Food Bank’s collection box at the end of your shopping trip.

If you use the ‘add’ (donated) feature our Food Bank will then be alerted via the app of your (anonymous) donation making it easier for us to track and locate items we really need.