A Chessington food bank ran out of food after seeing a spike in the number of people visiting in the past two weeks.
Volunteers at the King’s Centre in Coppard Gardens, where a food bank opens on Wednesday mornings, had to call for a re-supply from Kingston food bank’s central stores.
It normally helps six or seven people a week, but last Wednesday it saw 23, and the week before that, 18.
Administrator Tony Whitmarsh said: “The team that does it feels there has definitely been an increase following the changes that have come through with bedroom tax and so on.
“It is hitting our area now. We are definitely seeing an increase, quite a big increase, in the number of people.”
Kingston food bank organiser Paul Pickhaver, a Surbiton church leader and former civil servant, said: “Chessington does not get a huge number of clients.
“As soon as someone said, ‘We are really low’, we were able to get the food to them.”
Volunteer Hazel Rogers said the increase was “massive”.
She said: “Chessington is quite a good area in terms of how many people actually need our help.
“A lot of them are on low incomes. Most of them cannot believe they have got into this situation, and that there are people like us out there who want to help them.
“Our job is not to judge. Our job is to sympathise.”
The Surrey Comet reported in May that almost a third of people visiting Kingston food bank were there because of benefit issues.
The King’s Centre receives most of its donations from church members, schools and Women’s Institute members.
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