'I had £3 in the bank and no clue how I'd manage'

“I’M SEEING doctors, nurses and even lawyers having to use a food bank,” the food bank support manager says.

- Charmaine Walsh is a food bank support manager and has shared some of the situations that people who use food banks find themselves in. She speaks to local democracy reporter Anthony Lewis

Following the recent release of statistics about food bank use over the past year in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT), the Local Democracy Reporting Service heard from Charmaine Walsh about some of the stories she is hearing from people.

More than 16,634 emergency food parcels were provided to people facing hardship across RCT between April 2024 and March 2025, with 5,793 of these being provided for children.

RCT food banks have seen a 7.7% decrease in the number of emergency food parcels distributed compared with last year but despite this slight dip, RCT has experienced persistently high levels of food bank need in recent years, with a sharp 30.1% rise when compared with 2019-20.

Charmaine said: “While we saw referrals decrease slightly, the need for food banks across the UK has not wavered.

“As a food bank support manager, every day I speak to people who tell me they are struggling to put food on the table and are unable to afford the essentials.

“People tell me how they used to be able to scrape by, but now they have nothing left at the end of the month.

“They are having to use the food bank because money just doesn’t last the way it used to, due to the high cost of living, and because low incomes from work and social security payments are not covering the costs of the essentials.