The director of a community group which was set up in response to Covid-19 has said they are experiencing food shortages and "overwhelming" demand.
Muireann Meehan Speed – one of Oxford Mutual Aid’s founders and manging director for three years- said demand for food parcels was at unprecedented levels.
Ms Speed said the group’s ability to help vulnerable people was currently limited by a shortage in bikers and drivers, and she appealed for more volunteers to come forward.
Ms Speed said: “We are supporting anywhere between 1500 and 2000 people a week but due to the cost of living crisis this number is jumping.
“Every day our phone line is ringing off the hook and there are so many requests we cannot fulfil simply because we do not have the drivers or bikers to deliver them.
“People are really desperate and there’s a lot of people who have never been in this situation before.”
Oxford Mutual Aid’s difficulty keeping up with requests for food comes after the OX4 Food Crew, an alliance of nine local grassroots organisations working to fight food inequality in the city, came together to raise funds and organise an emergency bulk purchase of essential food.
READ MORE: Unprecedented demand for food support in Oxford sees needs unmet
Ms Speed said their 100 active volunteers were packing between 50-70 food parcels a day but they were struggling to help everyone who has asked for help due to serious food shortages.
She explained: “We are also experiencing serious food supply shortages which is really impacting our operation and making it extremely difficult to get those essentials to households.
“Donations have dropped because people are facing a cost of living crisis themselves.”
The group predominantly delivers to people in the city centre, but parcels are also taken to areas outside of the city such as Kidlington.
Ms Speed said they delivered a large proportion of the parcels to “the disabled, the elderly and those with mental health difficulties.”
The group is “constantly creating new routes” to deal with the increasing demand and their food supplies can also be collected from their base at the Richard Benson Hall on Cowley Road.
Ms Speed said there needs to be a greater awareness of the growing food poverty in Oxford.
She added: “Food poverty is a real issue in Oxford. There are areas in Oxford which are in the top ten most deprived areas in the UK.
“A lot of people have jobs but they simply cannot make ends meet.”
In 2019, the UK Government’s deprivation figures revealed 18 areas of Oxfordshire rank in the top 20 per cent most deprived areas in England.
Ms Speed said they were facing “a huge amount of challenges in the coming months” but she urged people to continue coming forward for help and emphasised that those struggling are “not alone.”