Gillingham Street Angels struggles as they fed a record 21,500 people last month.

As winter approaches and inflation rises they fear the demand for their service will only continue to shoot up.

Transcript

00:00 Dinner, a warm drink and shelter. It should be guaranteed for everyone, but thousands

00:06 in Medway are finding themselves reliant on local services to put food on the table for

00:12 them and their families. Last month, the Gillingham Street Angels helped a record 21,500 people.

00:19 At their weekly soup kitchens, they have hundreds coming along.

00:22 It's very, very hard in life to survive out on the street. It's so expensive now to eat

00:28 every day.

00:29 I lost my father seven months ago, so it's been a little bit hard for all of us.

00:34 These people are really, really good. They help the community. And if it weren't for

00:37 these people, I think a lot of people would be in a lot more trouble than they are now.

00:40 People are short for money. Come up here, get free food. No, things like that do a good

00:45 job.

00:46 Hours are spent preparing the food for their Wednesday soup kitchens. And this is just

00:51 a glimpse into some of the demands these local charities are met with.

00:57 Every week when the Gillingham Street Angels host their weekly soup kitchens, they make

01:00 up to around 10 boxes of food for the hundreds of people that come along.

01:06 This year, it cost the Medway-based food bank more than a million pounds to run. And they're

01:11 concerned what this means for the future of the organisation.

01:15 When we first started doing the soup kitchens, back five years ago, we were probably doing

01:18 40, 50 people a night when we were doing the soup kitchens. Last month, it was 21,000 people

01:23 came through the food bank and the soup kitchen. And there's other stuff we do that we don't

01:26 recall. So the numbers are just getting out of hand, really. This year, it's going to

01:30 be a million pounds to operate this charity. So it's a big task. But I'm lucky we've got

01:34 a very good team of people who get the job done and make it possible to do it.

01:38 While independent charities are struggling now more than ever, they're not the only ones.

01:43 The Trussell Trust reported between April and September this year, they distributed

01:47 more than 165,000 emergency food parcels across the South East.

01:53 And in Medway alone, the Trussell Trust sent a total of 7,101 emergency food parcels. That's

02:00 an increase of around 2,500 from this period last year.

02:04 For a while, we saw massive increase in families. And now, and then we've seen an increase in

02:09 individuals, so single people coming and needing our help. And we've had a look, which kind

02:13 of like forecasting what we're looking at in the next six months. And we're looking

02:16 at another 49% increase over these next six months. Again, on top of what we're already

02:22 doing, which is incredibly busy at the moment.

02:24 As food banks are met with record demands, their concerns only grow as winter and Christmas

02:29 approaches as this is often their busiest time.

02:33 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Gillingham.