A mother of two has said she cried after receiving her first parcel from a local foodbank. Denise, from Craigavon, said she was struggling in a cold house with no food when the package arrived full of cans of soup, pasta, cereal, milk, juice, sweets and crisps for her children. "It might not seem much to some people but it was just a lot to me," she told BBC News NI.
The anti-poverty charity Trussell Trust said its food banks distributed 35,000 emergency food parcels across Northern Ireland between April and September this year. Denise had to leave her job two years ago due to health reasons. A private renter, she said by the time her sickness benefits arrived she "couldn't make ends meet".
Denise said it took her a while to contact the foodbank because she was embarrassed. "I've always worked and looked after myself," she said. The day she rang the foodbank, Denise called them several times before hanging up when the phone was answered.
Most Trussell parcels are distributed to families with children, with 71% going to households with children 16 and under. The charity also said 7,400 people visited a food bank for the first time between April and September. In the corner of a sprawling industrial estate is a unit with the number five emblazoned on it.
It is as anonymous and uniform as the unit next to it. Behind the grey steel shutters is every kind of food imaginable. Tin cans are stacked in rows from floor to ceiling and volunteers place items in shopping baskets which are.