Covid: Blackpool soup kitchen inundated with 'desperate' families

A charity set up to help the homeless said it has been inundated with people from all walks of life due to the "devastating" impact of Covid-19.

Amazing Graze Soup Kitchen in Blackpool has provided 400 meals a week, as well as food parcels, during the pandemic.

Its founder Mark Butcher said it had worked to "maximum capacity" for months.

One woman said she "wouldn't have been able to eat and survive" without donations from the charity.

With tourist attractions forced to close during the national lockdown, Mr Butcher said Blackpool had been "hit hard" as so many residents rely on tourism for income.

Amazing Graze, which is based in Bolton Street in South Shore, was set up in 2012 primarily to help homeless people.

"It's changed now. We're helping everybody," Mr Butcher said.

Mr Butcher said people "from all walks of life" were using the service including families, pensioners, people who have lost their jobs and full-time workers.

"We're seeing devastated people in desperate need of food, begging for food literally," he said.

"People rely heavily on the tourism trade and our industry and our jobs are all built [around] that.

"People are losing their jobs left, right and centre."

By Richard Smirke, BBC North West Tonight

On a bitterly cold evening, a long queue is forming outside Amazing Graze Soup Kitchen. Over the next few hours, more and more people arrive to pick up food parcels, hot meals, soft drinks and pet food.

Among them are young mothers pushing prams, taxi drivers with no-one to taxi, and former bar and restaurant workers who have lost their jobs during the pandemic.

Several tell me how they are struggling financially and how the latest lockdown is having a severe impact on their mental health. They fear for the future and what the next few months will bring.

At the end of the evening, all the food supplies are gone - given out to those that need them most - and Mark and his team of volunteers get to work cleaning up, in preparation for another busy day feeding Blackpool's most desperate families.

Mr Butcher said they were at "maximum output" by providing 400 meals a week but cannot take on any more helpers because the volunteers are in a social bubble.

His wife Abbie, who also helps to run the soup kitchen, said: "From the very first lockdown it was horrendous.

"Now there's more desperation from families.

"A lot of families are [on] the poverty line, especially with the kids being off school."

A sales assistant who has donated £60 worth of food to the charity said she had struggled previously but has worked through the pandemic.

"So money I save I like to donate to help other people," Chloe told the BBC.

Another woman, who asked not to be named, said: "I've been coming for quite a long time, it has helped me through a lot of struggles.

"If it wasn't for Amazing Grace I wouldn't have been able to eat and survive."

Blackpool Council's leader Lynn Williams said they had tried to do "everything in our power to mitigate the damage caused by restrictions to the economy and people's livelihoods, particularly the vulnerable and at risk".

She said recent budget proposals "prioritise both the protection and care of the vulnerable through essential services, as well as investment in regeneration projects which will be key to Blackpool's economic recovery going forward".

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [email protected]