Food banks say they may have to close within months

Why UK households are turning to food banks

Some figures from the Trussel Trust show that food banks are now paying for between 30% and 50% of the food they distribute.

The anti-poverty charity that runs the network in Northern Ireland says that strain has pushed two sites close to the edge.

Enniskillen Foodbank in County Fermanagh can cover its running costs for only two more months, project manager Paul Dickson said.

This comes after a second site on Belfast's Stewartstown Road that has already had to cut the size of its parcels.

The pressure echoes a wider squeeze on UK household budgets.

It follows council tax bills already rising by an 'outrageous' 94% in some areas, alongside climbing energy costs.

Dickson said donations left at supermarkets have dropped even as demand keeps rising.

The scale of the crisis in Northern Ireland

Edel Diamond, who runs the Stewartstown Road foodbank, said rising bills were adding to the pressure.

"It seems to me like one cost-of-living crisis is just rolling into another and it doesn't seem to have gone away," she said.

Readers weighing up whether it's cheaper to leave the heater on low all day will recognise the same arithmetic.

Diamond said she has not yet had to turn anyone away, but called the situation "distressing".

"We're not just a food bank, we are places of comfort for people, places where people can come and find that hope," she said.

How long can Enniskillen Foodbank keep running? well, the site's place in the Trussell Trust network guarantees funding for a further three months.

"That isn't enough to last a year," Dickson told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme.

The Trussell Trust says that demand for food is what is setting them back. Demand is outpacing donations, and some food banks are covering up to half their own food costs.

Dickson said the charity does not want to be needed at all.

"Part of the Trussell ethos is that we don't believe that we should be needed, but unfortunately, we are needed at the minute and we need to be here for the people that rely on us," he said.