Chipping Barnet's foodbank is experiencing a surge in demand: the number of households dependent on food parcels has almost doubled since the summer and an appeal has gone out to Christmas shoppers to donate what they  can.

The five most urgently required products are pasta sauces, cooking oil, tinned meat, tinned fruit, and tinned potatoes.

Items most in demand -- as well hosts of other products and Christmas fare such as chocolates -- can be left by shoppers in the foodbank boxes at Waitrose supermarket in The Spires, High Barnet; at Waitrose, Whetstone; Sainsburys, New Barnet; and Co-Op, Mays Lane.

Financial donations can be made directly via the foodbank’s website – www.chippingbarnet.foodbank.org.uk – and the money is used to buy food items for the foodbank and  purchase supermarket vouchers for families most in need.

Volunteers open the foodbank twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, at St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Somerset Road, New Barnet.

Foodbank manager Victoria Miller (far right) – seen above with volunteers (from left to right) Sally Painter, Lorna Feingold and Marion Wellsman -- said an average of 160 people were visiting the foodbank each week, almost twice as many as in the summer.

“With the weather turning for the worse and the cost of living crisis taking hold, we have seen a real increase in the number of families we are feeding.”

Teams drawn from a pool of 150 volunteers operate the twice-weekly sessions --- from 12noon to 2pm on Tuesdays and from 10am to 12noon on Saturdays – and meet on Mondays and Thursdays to sort out donated food.

Warehouse manager Harold Williams (far right) oversees the task of storing donated food in the correct date order – seen with volunteers Marion Wellsman and Yvonne Glass and manager Victoria Miller.

Volunteers collect fresh food and many other items from the borough’s food hub in the former East Barnet Library in Brookhill Road, which distributes bulk supplies of donated food.

A weekly collection is also made of fresh food donated by Costco in Watford.

Unlike some foodbanks, which are only now acquiring cold storage facilities, the Chipping Barnet foodbank has had its own refrigerator for some months and any donated fresh food is handed out as quickly as possible.

Ms Miller, who was one of the volunteers who established the foodbank ten years ago, has recently been appointed manager and she is keen to build up access to the foodbank’s website which offers help and advice.

Like other established foodbanks, it offers food parcels – containing three days of nutritionally balanced, non-perishable food – in return for food vouchers issued on the recommendation of Citizens Advice, children’s centres, health visitors and other agencies.

Ms Miller said the expansion in the support offered by the foodbank and the growth in volunteers led to the decision to appoint a manager.

The next training session for volunteers is due to be held in January next year – and there is no shortage of school pupils and students who are keen to get training as part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme.

“We can only take two students at a time – and they help sort donated food and pack parcels on Mondays – and we are fully booked until the end of the June, which shows what an amazing success the volunteer project has become and how keen young people are to get involved.”