York Food Bank staff have been “humbled” by support from residents during the coronavirus outbreak so far.
But the organisation does not yet know the scale of the challenge it will face – as it works to continue to provide emergency food for the most vulnerable.
Adam Raffell, project coordinator at York Food Bank, said:
The reality is that at the moment it’s a little too early to tell what is going to happen.
We are extremely grateful for the support we have had from the community in York. That’s been really fantastic.
People have been in touch since the crisis began and because of that we are hopefully looking in a healthy position, but we just don’t know what the challenge is going to be yet.
Extremely grateful
He added that the organisation is expecting to see more people needing to use the food bank.
And said: “We are also looking at ways to protect our clients as well as volunteers.
“We absolutely do need support and we are extremely grateful that the support has been forthcoming.
“York has rallied so far and we are very grateful for that. It’s been a very encouraging and humbling start.”
A statement from The Trussell Trust, which runs a network of food banks, said they will be working to continue to provide emergency food wherever possible.
No food bank in the network is currently running out of all food donations, according to the Trust.
And they are encouraging people to continue donating after checking what items are most needed.