A COMMUNITY food hub is seeing increased demand for its services as more and more families struggle to cope with the financial impact of Covid-19.

Carlisle's Affordable Food Hub, based at Kingmoor Park, launched in September and to date it has received more than 1,300 orders for parcels of groceries.

And despite Cumbria County Council confirming support for free school meals provision for almost 1,200 children over the holidays, the Affordable Food Hub is continuing to see a growing customer base.

Lisa Brown, project and campaigns co-ordinator, says job uncertainty and reduced hours is driving more people to turn for help.

"The numbers keep going up and up. It is steadily but there is no sort of let up in it. There have even been some more emergency food parcel requests, which had sort of died off. People seem to be getting more desperate now," she said.

"There is just no certainty for people in work.

"We are not winding down for Christmas like everyone else. We didn't feel we could sit at home for two weeks whilst people were in need.

"We wondered whether people might stop ordering because it's Christmas but people are still in need and the orders keep coming in."

The food hub up provides parcels worth £45 for a family of up to six people for just £9 per week. This will usually include bread, meat, yoghurts, milk, tins and free fruit and veg.

It's thanks to support from the community, local producers, businesses and supermarkets that the scheme has continued. And a core team of about 40 volunteers have been vital to ensuring its success.

Members of Carlisle United Community Sports Trust recently got involved and have been volunteering to help pack up and deliver orders to community organisations where people then collect their orders. They also donated about £500 of food.

"Community support has been great and is keeping us going but with the weekly subscription it has almost turned into a co-op," said Lisa. "That big pool of people buying from us allows us to buy more stuff.

"If we'd done it in another year it might have taken a bit of time to get going but because of coronavirus and people losing their jobs, it was there at the right time."

She added: "I hoped that it would be something that would keep going and now I can see that it's going to be another service for Carlisle like the food bank. There are no plans to stop doing it.

"We wish we didn't have to do this. We don't want to see people in a situation where they can't afford to buy food.

"We are blessed to be able to do it and thankful to all the volunteers and all the people who donate to make it happen. As long as we keep getting the support we'll keep it going."

The food hub volunteers worked up until yesterday and the service will resume on Tuesday December 29.

Visit www.carlislecommunityhelp.co.uk for more information.