PRESSURE on the Peeblesshire Foodbank is set to increase with the cold weather, it is feared.

Referrals for food aid to those most in need are the inevitable consequence of welfare benefit sanctions and the onset of winter claims Rev Jim Benton-Evans who manages a team of more than a dozen volunteers at the bank based in Peebles Cavalry Park.

“Our referrals go up in winter because people on the bare minimum are spending more of their tight budget on heating and keeping warm,” said Rev Benton-Evans.

In a bid to make running the food bank simpler he has appealed to Peeblesshire News readers for help to create a separate fundraising and publicity team which will increase the number of volunteers, who spend at least four hours a week in the unit and many more delivering food.

Rev Benton-Evans said: “We might not have such a tough area as Galashiels but we still need helpers, I’m a great believer in small teams which is shown to be best practice.” Rev Benton-Evans says that he can see no end to the necessity to use charity food as there is a steady increase in people who are being fed through the foodbank although on a good note he says many are one time users.

“The reality is that people come to us when they have been refused a crisis grant and we are the last alternative to going hungry,” said Rev Benton-Evans.

He spoke of two specific examples which he has experienced recently in Peeblesshire.

Rev Benton-Evans said: “As a typical example we get a number of referrals from the homelessness service who find accommodation for someone sleeping rough but due to benefits being delayed for up to four weeks they have no food, it is very hard for a homeless person to already be receiving benefit. In another situation recently we had a guy who came from custody and was left at the welfare service office, the staff there were told to help him and he had an immediate need for food because he was not in the system.” Rev Benton-Evans said that the welfare system is overloaded and the safety net is much smaller or at least not as big as it used to be and until there is some change in policy the problems will grow.

Foodbank volunteers man the office at 2, Rowan Court, Cavalry Park, Peebles, on Tuesdays from 10am to 12 noon and Thursdays from 11am to 1pm. For more details on how you could help, call 07799041723.