Two men have described how they would have 'nothing this Christmas' without food parcels donated by a local food bank.

The pair, who did not wish to be named, collected bags of food from CARE on Friday, December 22 - the busiest day in the charity's calendar.

Referrals to CARE can claim food parcels from the charity three times in a calendar year, and are provided with bags filled with breakfast cereal, milk, soup, pasta, and tinned meat and vegetables.

One service user said: "I wouldn't survive if this food bank wasn't here, I'd starve.

"Seriously, we'd both be dead - on the streets we have nothing, we have no food, and the fact that they give us that help is fantastic.

"Christmas is a really hard time, and it makes a big difference."

Anita Reynolds, tenancy support officer at CARE, with just a fraction of the food donated this month

Both the men have faced financial troubles recently with the roll out of Universal Credit over the winter months.

The second man, who has been using the food bank for four months, said: "With the Universal Credit roll out this month it's just been really hard - why couldn't they leave it until January?

"Christmas is already a really hard time and without the food bank we'd have nothing - if it wasn't here, we'd be in trouble.

"What do you do - go to a neighbour asking for a tin of beans or something? You can't do that."

CARE, a referral only food and toy bank in Grimsby, had their busiest day of the year on Friday, December 22 - delivering 25 per cent more food parcels than on a typical day.

Staff packed three times the number of food parcels in preparation, and by 2pm had already given donations to 14 service users.

One of the men said: "They've given us loads - biscuits, soup, pasta - it's amazing really.

More and more people are having to rely on Food Banks

"It's real, proper, quality food that they give us at CARE and it's amazing that people donate this for us.

"We appreciate those donations more than you could possibly understand, if it wasn't for people like that we'd have absolutely nothing - hats off to them."

Both men say sheer hungriness brought them to the food bank, as they became more and more unable to afford to buy a full meal, and they had to fill out a form at the Open Door GP surgery to be eligible to claim the parcels.

"Hungriness brought us here, just being hungry, and its somewhere you know you can get food from - you can rely on it," the second service user said.

"And it gets to the point where you have to go there, and at Christmas to be without food and without anything is just very difficult. You can't understand.

"If this wasn't here, what would you do? It's scary to think about that one. We'd be out shoplifting to get money to buy food because that's the next step isn't it?"

Anita Reynolds of the CARE Food and Toy bank

Anita Reynolds, a tenancy support officer at CARE, said demand for the food bank has increased massively over the past few weeks, with the staff having to pack two to three times the number of food parcels than they usually would.

She said: "This week has been manic - there's been food every which way.

"If we're not putting together food parcels, we're collecting donations, and our hallway is barely ever free of new donations.

"I'm supposed to work in housing but I can't get anything done because all I've done all week is give food out."

Friday was the busiest day of the year for the CARE Food Bank in Grimsby. Library picture

The charity has seen a huge increase in the amount of people using the service this year, with 13% more families and individuals relying on the food bank for survival.

She said: "If I didn't have all these amazing colleagues around me to help me we'd be overwhelmed - the run up to Christmas just gets busier and busier and busier because the need is massive.

Two men have spoken of how without a Grimsby food bank, they would have nothing this Christmas

"We just spend all our day giving food out, and that's possible because of the generosity of everyone who comes through here - and that generosity is unbelievable.

"If anybody ever thinks Grimsby's not got a lot to recommend it, they're wrong - the generosity of people and organisation of people who give to the food larder at this time of year is unbelievable.

"We can't put it away fast enough."

For more information about CARE services in Grimsby and Immingham or how to help visit