Foundation feels pinch, but wants to go on helping others

Across the region, there have been a large range of food banks and charities who have been dedicating their time to helping people in their communities through food parcels, hot meals and advice about accessing services.

However, as demand has increased, it had put a real strain on the food banks and groups, with many reporting a shortage in supplies and a struggle to keep up the same level of support they want to provide.

One group which has been a leader in its community over the last three years has been the Elias Mattu Foundation in Wolverhampton.

The Foundation, which was named in memory of the late mayor of Wolverhampton, worked throughout lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide families with food and access to services and has continued to provide help since the start of the cost of living crisis.

It was featured at the start of the Express and Star Feed a Family campaign as one of the food banks needing help and despite receiving a donations boost, founder Asha Mattu said the situation was still very difficult.

She said: "The situation, at the moment, is not too good as we did get a response when we were featured previously, but we have so many new referrals and so much going out and the numbers just keep going up.

"We are getting a lot more working class people coming forward as they are just not managing and the demand is just too much with everything going up, so it's very difficult.

"Referrals-wise, we are getting, on average, around five to six new referrals each day and around 30 new people a week, so we have close to 400 people using our service at the moment and we're likely to be over that by next week."

Ms Mattu said the Foundation was dealing with mainly food requests, but had also been helping people with gas and electricity, although had had to cancel that service due to loss of funding.

She said that if the demand continued as it was and the rate of donations didn't increase sufficiently, she estimated the Foundation would be unable to offer help in around two weeks, a fact that she said left her sad and frustrated.

She said: "It makes me sad as we are a service which is needed and I keep thinking about what these people are going to do as they are relying on us.

"Trust me, it takes guts to approach a food bank and admit that you need help, and while a lot of people have said they are embarrassed about doing so and never thought they'd have to, they have to because of the situation they're in.

"I hear their stories and what they are worried about, which include not knowing when they are able to pay their bills or put food on the table and they're just finding it hard to make ends meet and feed everyone."

Ms Mattu said that as long as the Foundation was able to do so, it would help people as much as it could and asked that if anyone could donate to do so and help other people.

She said: "If you can make a donation, please do so to help us to keep working and helping people.

"We are all helping each other as the donations come in and then go out to feed families, so it's a community helping a community.

"If companies out there want to help us, that would be great as we are here and we need the help, so please consider us."