Inside Blackpool’s 'foodbank of foodbanks' - which provides more than 17,000 meals per week - in danger of closure
The number of people needing support to feed themselves in Blackpool is growing rather than decreasing
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
Ahead of this week’s budget, the message is clear: things are getting harder for people in poverty, not easier.
And the number of people in poverty is getting bigger, not smaller.
Today we speak with the chief executive of The Big Food Project - busier and more important than ever.
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Blackpool briefing
📌 Blackpool’s Conservative councillors say proposals by the authority to merge with Preston would be a mistake. At a special meeting this week to discuss the proposed reorganisation of local authorities, the Labour leaders of Blackpool gave a presentation in support of their chosen merger. All councils are being asked by the Government to choose various options to form a smaller number of larger councils, which would see different authorities merge together. They are all due to send their recommendations to the Government by November 28. Blackpool favours an option to combine with Fylde, the west side of Wyre and Preston, arguing that this tallies most closely with the way people on the Fylde coast live their lives. But the Conservatives would prefer to see a version which includes Lancaster instead of Preston, saying a combined coastal authority would be a better fit.
🚧 There has been further progress on work for a new multi-million pound Ministry of Defence (MOD) office building in Blackpool. Planning permission for the ambitious scheme, part of Blackpool’s £350m Talbot Gateway regeneration project, was granted by Blackpool planners back in September 2024, with various conditions. One of those conditions stressed a requirement for a completed assessment of likely pedestrian routes, associated crossing movements, and need for a formal crossing facility to be submitted to Blackpool planners. This has now been approved by Blackpool Council, with the planning officer being satisfied that the existing pedestrian crossing provision on Talbot Road is suitable, sufficient and safe to accommodate the likely pedestrian movements from the development.
🛏️ Proposals to demolish two hotels and replace them with 51 modern apartments on Blackpool’s South Shore promenade have finally been approved by planners. The plans are part of an ambitious, multi-million pound project aimed at revitalising part of the promenade south of Blackpool Pleasure Beach Resort and will see a total of 92 apartments built. The overall scheme will see developers recreate the original crescent which will bring together the north and south ends of a terrace which will involve the completion of the extension to the Hampton by Hilton between them. Two new gleaming white properties featuring the apartments at either end will bookend the development.
Blackpool’s foodbank of foodbanks - which provides more than 17,000 meals per week - in danger of closure
By Michael Holmes
Blackpool’s “foodbank of foodbanks” - which supplies 120 foodbanks, schools, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and families across the Fylde coast - is in danger of shutting down.
The Big Food Project, which began life as the Blackpool Food Bank in 2012 and rebranded about 18 months ago, is busier than ever, now providing more than 17,000 meals a week.
“However, without securing vital funding in the next few months to pay for our basic operating costs, it will be difficult to see how we can continue,” chief executive Claire Powell said.
In an exclusive interview with The Blackpool Lead, Claire said the service, which is run by six workers and around 150 volunteers from its base on the Whitehills Industrial Estate, is needed by a widening range of people living in one of the country’s poorest towns.
That includes people with jobs not paying enough to survive the deepening cost-of-living crisis.
Claire said: “There is no average foodbank user. You have street homeless accessing food via our partners and soup kitchens and community venues to older people that are really struggling and having to choose between heating and eating.
“And then you have those in between, (such as) families struggling to feed their children.
“Most people have in their mind that the typical user is a person on benefits and that’s not necessarily the case.
“There will be people who have worked all their life but their pensions don’t cover their needs.
“And you have people on minimum wage, which does not cover the cost of living nowadays.”
Claire, who has been at the Big Food Project since June, said everything that comes in and out of the service’s warehouse is weighed, with data collected over the past 13 years showing the increasing demand for help.
“It’s not anecdotal,” she said. “What I can tell you categorically is that we are getting busier year on year.
“We are on target this year for giving out about 5,000 crisis parcels - about 1,000 more than last year.
“We are definitely seeing the number of people relying on our support increasing.
“I can say that confidently.”
Rather than handing out food parcels directly, the Big Food Project accepts surplus and donated food and redistributes it across the community in Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde.
Venues such as community hubs and crisis services then hand it out.
“We’ve got a big warehouse,” Claire said.
“Last year, we rescued just short of 400 tonnes of food, which works out at around nearly 850,000 meals.
“So we are much bigger than what you would imagine a foodbank being.”
And that is just one aspect, with the Big Food Project also offering crisis parcels to those who have literally no food.
After being referred generally through support workers, Blackpool Council and other agencies, people are given the parcels, which include so-called kettle bags containing food that can be heated and eaten with only a kettle, such as noodles.
Meanwhile, the Big Food Truck visits three resort venues - the Claremont Community Centre, Layton Methodist Church and Blackpool Football Club - and sells one-man bags of food for £5 and family bags for £8.
Those, Claire said, are for people who are “not getting a handout but a hand up”.
“They are contributing but still have their dignity,” she added.
“Food is getting so expensive. People are really feeling the pinch. And that’s why people are finding their money is not stretching for the whole month.
“And we are talking about people who are working.
“The cost-of-living crisis is real.
“I’ve not been here that long but I know from what staff us - we are seeing more and more people that are working and are struggling.
“They have just not got enough money to last until payday.”
Last month, The Blackpool Lead revealed how a growing number of children in the town are living in poverty.
Some 9,421 youngsters were classed as living in absolute poverty in 2023/24, up from 6,907 in 2018/19, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show.
Meanwhile, 42% of schoolchildren in the resort were eligible for free school meals in the 2024/25 school year because their families got certain qualifying benefits, according to data from the Department for Education.
And there are 59 families with children living in temporary housing, the local authority said.
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