THIS Christmas was the busiest to date for Worcester Foodbank, but the charity says the worst could be yet to come.

Grahame Lucas, Worcester Foodbank manager, has praised the goodwill of local people who donated so much food, that a record 947 people were fed throughout December.

Low income (403), benefit payment issues (304) and debt (141) were the main reasons people were forced to rely on the city’s foodbank during December.

However, there was an increase of 22 per cent on the same period last year.

A total of 21.6 tonnes of food was donated by Worcester residents, along with hundreds of Christmas gifts which meant 418 disadvantaged children had a Christmas present this year.

Mr Lucas said: “It’s nothing short of a miracle that we’ve been able to support a record number of people this Christmas and we’re so grateful to our volunteers and the huge number of people who have donated food and toys.

“At the same time it’s a massive concern to us that we’ve had such a busy end to the year, especially as we’ve yet to see the full impact of Universal Credit in Worcester.

“It suggests 2019 could take us into uncharted territory.”

The full rollout of Universal Credit began in Worcester in October and the charity has warned that it could trigger a similar explosion in foodbank use already seen in other parts of the country.

It has warned that it may have to find an additional 30,000 meals over the next 12 months to cope with the increase in people coming through its doors.

The Trussel Trust, a charity with a national network of affiliated foodbanks, released figures earlier in 2018 which showed that between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018, the foodbank network distributed 1,332,952 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year.

484,026 of these went to children. These figures are an increase on the previous year, where foodbank usage rose by six per cent.

Between April and September 2018, 658,048 three-day emergency food supplies were given out nationwide.

The emergency food parcels provide three days of food made up of ten nutritionally balanced meals.

The West Midlands was fifth on the list of most three-day emergency packs given out during that period, with 61,053 supplies provided.

Only The East of England, London, Scotland and the North West received more.

For more information, visit worcester.foodbank.org.uk