Brierfield volunteer reveals fears Lighthouse Christian Centre Foodbank could close due to lack of donations

Sharon Petrie, of Burnley, says Lighthouse Christian Centre Foodbank in Halifax Road, Brierfield, is struggling to source enough daily essentials to feed people in need.

The volunteers, who hand out around 20 parcels a day, regularly dig into their own pockets to purchase items in order to keep the service afloat.

Sharon (51) said: “We will have to close if we cannot provide a service - that is the real fear, especially in the coming months.

“We just hope and pray we can keep going. We don’t know when that next donation is going to come, so every little thing counts.

“We’re a small food bank that relies on donations but we see a lot of people coming through the door and the demand is getting bigger. We think it’s going to get worse.”

Sharon added: “Usually, you can tell by looking at a person how desperate they are. You can see the worry on their faces.

“I was really humbled a few weeks ago to see how many people came to the door and how grateful they were. I was quite emotional because it’s just so hard for them.

“We gave out food parcels to 63 people one week and it more or less cleared us out. And a lot of the donations we were given were flowers - there’s not a lot we can do with flowers. I work in a care home so I was able to swap them for tins of food.”

Sharon says the church must go as far as Rawtenstall to access free food from supermarkets as Burnley and Pendle branches are already donating elsewhere.

And, she added: “One of the volunteers goes to the shop quite often and spends a lot of his own money to fill the food bank up. Quite often if we’re running low on something I’ll just pick up some items from the shop. But there are times when we can’t do that and the price of living is constantly going up. There’s only so much we can do.”

Referrals are not required - call in on Wednesdays from 11am to 4pm for a food parcel or to donate items.

To make a monetary donation, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/lighthouse-christian-centre-foodbank-brierfield