Food bank serving hundreds across Lancaster each week makes desperate appeal for new home

The Olive Branch is currently operating out of St Thomas' Church in Marton Street, which was out of use during lockdown.

The number of families needing extra support has increased dramatically in recent weeks, and the food bank is currently delivering around 650 parcels a month to homes across Lancaster and further afield.

At their highest point in May, they saw 664 household referrals.

However, now life is starting to return to normal, the charity needs to vacate the premises so that construction workers can move onto the site.

Olive Branch project manager Leslie Mann said ideally, the charity - which also has an office in Westbourne Road - needs a building of at least 100 square metres, and with parking on site or close by.

It would also need toilets and basic kitchen facilities.

"We were already looking for somewhere bigger because we had outgrown our office," Leslie said. "When lockdown started, church halls weren't being used and so St Thomas' let us use their building which we are very grateful for.

"But now the construction industry is up and running again their plan is to knock the building down, which had been put on hold by the lockdown.

"We probably need to move from the building within the next month."

Leslie said they would ideally like to be Lancaster based, or within a couple of miles of the city centre, to make it easier for their 30 volunteers as well as generous residents who drop off food for them.

"It wouldn't have to be something permanent," he said. "Our longer term plan is to get back to having a premises where we can have face-to-face contact with people again.

"It would be simpler to plan for the longer term if we knew what the situation was, but given the current situation it's difficult to plan."

Leslie said the number of people needing their help has escalated over the course of the Covid-19 crisis.

"We have had a massive increase in need," Leslie said. "Pre-Covid we were delivering 280 parcels a month, which was already up 45 per cent on 12 months before.

"We are now giving out about 650 parcels a month - we have seen a more than 100 per cent increase. We are feeding nearly 300 people a week.

"The expectation is that when furlough comes to an end we will start to see a wave of redundancies and potentially a spike in need.

"Donation levels from the public have been fantastic in terms of both finance and food and we are very grateful for that support."

If you can help, contact The Olive Branch by calling 01524 555715 or email [email protected]