Madam,

Your item on food banks in Ceredigion makes some excellent points regarding the reasons for a 13 per cent increased use of food banks across Wales.

In the same six-month period as that described in the article, Aberystwyth’s Jubilee Storehouse, an independent food bank based in St Anne’s Church in Penparcau, has seen a huge increase in the number of parcels distributed.

The food bank provided 295 parcels between April and September in 2017, and 392 in the same period in 2018, an increase of 33 per cent.

Parcels are for couples and families as well as single people, so the number of individuals provided with food, many of whom are children, is substantially more than the number of parcels distributed.

As stated by the Trussell Trust, the situation can only get worse as Universal Credit is rolled, with the five-week delays in payment.

We are most grateful to the people of the Aberystwyth area whose generous donations enable us to provide this increasingly essential service.

Yours etc,

Malcolm Dye, Jubilee Storehouse, St Anne’s Church, Penparcau, Aberystwyth.

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