ALARMING new figures released by the organisation which runs Malmesbury foodbank, reveal that some parents feel forced to skip meals during the school summer holiday due to financial worries.

The Trussell Trust says families who benefit from free school meals often find themselves facing difficulties outside of term time, due to the additional financial pressure of providing food for their children.

It says that its research shows that 40 per cent of parents worry about the extra cost of paying for childcare and food during the summer holiday and one in five will skip meals in order to feed their children.

Malmesbury and District Foodbank, which is part of the nationwide network of foodbanks supported by the Trussell Trust, is tackling the issue by setting aside extra resources to cope with the summer demand, thanks to the generosity of residents and donations from the town’s Waitrose and Co-operative stores.

Volunteers at the charity are encouraging families who need help to make use of the foodbank. Richard Gray, trustee of the foodbank, said: “We’ve been proactive in that we knew there were people whose children relied on free school meals.

“We contacted the local schools and got them to give a letter to the parents of these children and they contacted us to ask for food during the holidays.

“Where money is tight, food comes first and the children and activities during the holidays comes second so we are providing a useful resource for families in financial difficulty.

“So far we’ve had 10 people respond but we sent out a lot more letters than that, if people are still in need they can contact the foodbank.

“In the last financial year we gave out twice as many food parcels as in the previous year so this is an ongoing issue and one that has some way to go before we see the needs of the foodbank diminishing.”

Richard added that the best way of donating to the foodbank is through the trollies that are at Waitrose and the Co-op stores in Malmesbury as well as collection points in the church and town hall.

For more information about the foodbank, go to malmesburydistrict. foodbank.org.uk