COLCHESTER’S foodbank has served a record number of hungry clients over the festive period as families feel the bite of soaring inflation and rising energy bills.

Mike Beckett is chief operating officer at the foodbank, which is the busiest in the east of England.

He confirmed the foodbank, with its 300 volunteers and its satellite spots around Colchester, has fed more than 2,000 people in December.

“It’s been our busiest Christmas ever,” he said.

“We saw more clients in 2022 than we did in 2021, before the end of November.

“December was our busiest month ever. We’ve also seen record breaking weeks in some of our satellites, they’ve never been so busy.”

Mr Beckett, who has been with the foodbank for 15 years, said the charity’s long-term aim is to close for good by 2030.

“Our long term plan is for foodbanks to no longer be necessary and to try and make people independent," he said.

“But it’s down to the Government, and the Government will fight whatever fire is burning brightest for them.

“If food poverty is the thing burning brightest, then the goal is possible.

“Where there is political will, there is a way, but we can’t control what politicians will want to do.”

Mr Beckett called for the Government to introduce “a real living minimum wage”.

He also urged the Government to scrap the two-child benefits cap, which will see households with more than two children where universal credit or child tax credit is claimed no longer receive additional funds.

The cap applies to additional children born after April 6, 2017.

Exemptions apply for those who had children in a multiple birth or children conceived due to rape or coercion.

But the exemptions have caused controversy as women must disclose that they were raped in order to be eligible – known as the rape clause.

Mr Beckett said: “If the Government believes in undeserving and deserving poor and wants to go down that Victorian route, no-one has ever said children are undeserving.

“43 per cent of clients last year were children.

“We are over 40 per cent this year. We’ve had more people who have never used a foodbank before.

“If they’re not being paid a living wage, they’re finding it hard to manage. We’ve also found that when people are choosing between heating and eating, it causes real problems.”