This October was the five-year anniversary of Epsom and Ewell’s food bank, but organisers say it’s no cause for celebration that “there are hungry people who can’t afford to feed themselves.”

Since opening in 2012, the food bank has fed almost 12,000 people, provided 160 tonnes of food and given over 200 hours of volunteering a week.

The project has also further developed to include three other centres at Leatherhead, Tadworth and Banstead.

Team manager Jonathan Lees said: “When we set it up in 2012 we had no idea that we would still be going after so many years. There were people sceptical that our community even needed a foodbank.”

Last year’s figures for people using the food bank were down by one per cent and volunteers were optimistic that the tide had turned, but this year there was a nine per cent rise in demand on previous years.

Mr Lees said: “Our current target is to support people coming in so that clients don’t need to come back, they can restart their lives and move on from the crisis.”

Epsom and Ewell food bank also offers furniture, cooking courses, support, counselling and signposting to other agencies.

Most of the food banks users are single males, with the second-largest group being single-parent families. There are also a mix of people on low-incomes or on benefits, including universal credit for which payments are said to delayed by around six weeks whenever there are administration problems.

Mr Lees said: “We had someone who lost their job because they physically couldn’t do that work anymore, and we had another guy who used to work on the roads tarmacking but he got too old.”

One of the biggest problems facing food banks, including in Epsom and Ewell, is the difficulty in obtaining and storing fresh food for their clients.

Mr Lees said: “We do work with a number of supermarkets that we get some fresh food from, then in the summer we get a lot of stuff from allotments.”

The food bank is part of the Trussell Trust and relies on the support from individuals, churches, agencies, businesses and schools – be it with food, time, furniture or finances.

Mr Lees added: “Let’s hope and pray that after the next five years we won’t still be here.”

For more information on Epsom and Ewell food bank email foodbank@generation.org.uk or visit their website https://epsomewell.foodbank.org.uk/