Food poverty in Hillingdon has risen rapidly in the last year as the Government’s cuts hit people hard.

The Trussell Trust, the charity running foodbanks in London, recorded an increase in people visiting its food bank in Hillingdon of 313%.

When the Trussell Trust launched foodbanks in London there were only six, today there are 39, with numbers of visitors in the past year increasing at an alarming rate.

A total of 489 people relied on the support of Hillingdon Foodbank in the year 2012/13. That shot up to 2021 in the year 2013/14.

Tunde Balogun, senior pastor at Kingsborough Family Church, which runs the foodbank, said: "The foodbank is growing. We have opened another distribution centre in Hayes so we now have six centres across the borough and we are still hoping to open more.

"The demand is there. More people are coming and there are different reasons why the demand is growing.

"A major reason that people have given for coming to the foodbank is that they have a delay in receiving their benefits and more and more people are coming in because of that," he said.

The lease on the foodbank's warehouse in Waterloo Road, Uxbridge, ran out in December, and the last few months have been touch and go for the charity, finding temporary storage spaces and running a reduced service.

But according to Mr Balogun, Hillingdon Foodbank is turning a corner after finding a more permanent space near to Heathrow Terminal 5.

"We moved in on June 14 with a lease of four to five months and it is possible that the lease can be renewed," he said.

"We also recently held a community awareness conference in Uxbridge to get more people into supporting the Hillingdon Foodbank either as volunteers or partners. That was a great success and there seemed to be a lot of interest from people wanting to get involved and help the foodbank.

"We are having much more support than we have ever had before. The most exciting thing is that we found more churches coming on board to help out in every respect including the management and running of the foodbank.

 "We are now looking for a small place in Uxbridge, just a room or a shop front, that we can use as a meeting point for volunteers and people can go to drop food off there. If anyone knows of a space available that we can use that would be very helpful."

Last year, London Assembly Member Fiona Twycross published a report on why growing numbers of Londoners are unable to afford enough food for themselves and their families.          

Dr Onkar Sahota, Labour London Assembly Member for Ealing and Hillingdon, called on Mayor of London Boris Johnson to visit the borough's Foodbank.

He said: "Food poverty in modern Britain is a scandal. It is horrifying that in London, one of the world's richest cities, the number of people reliant on food banks has almost doubled in the past year.

"This includes working people whose wages simply won’t stretch and who can’t afford to buy enough food for their families.

“The Mayor has to take a lead in working with partner organisations to help lift London families out of food poverty, and it is astonishing that despite these figures the Mayor has still refused to visit a foodbank in his six years in office. I am calling on him to visit a local foodbank in Hillingdon so he can hear directly why people are hungry in our city.” “The Mayor has to take a lead in working with partner organisations to help lift London families out of food poverty, and it is astonishing that despite these figures the Mayor has still refused to visit a foodbank in his six years in office. I am calling on him to visit a local foodbank in Hillingdon so he can hear directly why people are hungry in our city.”

"The Mayor has to take a lead in working with partner organisations to help lift London families out of food poverty, and it is astonishing that despite these figures the Mayor has still refused to visit a foodbank in his six years in office.

"I am calling on him to visit a local foodbank in Hillingdon so he can hear directly why people are hungry in our city."

On July 4, 5 and 6, Hillingdon Foodbank volunteers will be collecting food outside ten Tesco supermarkets across the borough and are looking for more volunteers to help out.

If you would like to volunteer to help the foodbank call 01895 252224 and press extension number 3.