A Denbighshire Foodbank has marked its fifth anniversary.
County councillor for Denbigh, Cllr Rhys Thomas, who helps run the Vale of Clwyd Foodbank believes it’s a sad state of affairs for Wales to need foodbanks.
Cllr Thomas said: “What we’d all like more than anything else is for Wales not to need Foodbanks
“The fact that we’re five years on, and people have been very kind with their donations, but we are getting more clients than we did in the first few years shows things haven’t changed for people in society
“We don’t supply food to the same people week-in-week-out so they become dependent, they’re all new so we don’t see them on more than three occasions, we’re there for short term crises.
“So it’s when people lose jobs or if there’s been a bereavement or when benefits change.
“Of course when Universal Credit rolls out, for lots of people it’s paid retrospectively there’ll be a gap then
“People may be already in debt might be tempted to go back to the loan sharks that target them so we’d rather help them out for short period rather than let them get more into debt.
“On the positive side though, over the last few months we’ve had very generous donations. We’ve had massive amounts of food from local organisations: St Brigid’s School and Myddelton College have both had collections at harvest services.
“I’ve also been at Ysgol Glan Clwyd as the Year Sevens will have food collection boxes in form rooms between now and Christmas, so I’ve been there to explain what we do.”
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