Singer James Morrison helps out at Stroud food bank

Singer James Morrison has visited a food bank near his home in the Cotswolds to lend his support to the staff and volunteers working there.

The musician, who says he experienced food poverty as a child, was at the Stroud District Foodbank on Thursday.

This week the Trussell Trust, which runs more than half of UK food banks, said millions of food parcels have been distributed in the past year.

The charity expects that to worsen as the cost of living crisis deepens.

Morrison said: "I remember what it was like to go without as a kid, we were quite a poor family.

"I feel like I relate to that feeling of not having enough, we could've done with a food bank."

Morrison has sold millions of albums worldwide including hits like You Give Me Something and Broken Strings, but wanted to pay tribute to his local food bank.

"It gives that little bit of respite, it takes the panic out of 'where am I going to get the food from?', 'how are we going to pay our bills?'" he said.

"It's an essential thing to keep you fuelled and feeling good, and these food boxes do that, they get you through one more day, one more week."

The Trussell Trust gave out some 1.9 million food parcels in 2019-2020, to an estimated 370,000 households.

But a record 2.5 million parcels were distributed during the height of the pandemic in 2020-21, and that only fell back to 2.1 million parcels last year.

Amanda-Jane Strover, the Stroud District Foodbank manager, encouraged those in need of help to get in touch.

"There's no stigma about using a food bank. We are feeding 5,000 people a year across our district," she said.

"There's always a friendly face, we don't judge people, anyone in need of food should call Citizen's Advice. They can do a referral, and we'd be able to do a doorstep delivery."

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