A food bank in North Belfast has started opening five days a week due to increased demand.
The Skegoneill Community Food Bank originally only opened on Saturdays, but is now open on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They also operate two evenings per week to make sure they can help as many people as possible.
Among those attending the food bank on a regular basis are working parents struggling to keep their families fed amid the rising cost of living.
Read more: Easy ways to help cut cost of your grocery bill
Jeanna Kelly from the food bank told Belfast Live "something needs to be done" to help struggling families.
"When we first opened there was one person who came in through the door. The second and third week, there weren't many coming in when we just opened on a Saturday," she explained.
"But we got our eyes opened and the demand is now unreal. In this day and age it's a total disgrace.
"I have people coming in here every day crying their eyes out, saying they feel like they can't look after their children, and that's totally wrong, they shouldn't have to feel like that."
The community food bank relies solely on donations as they receive no funding. Reaching out to local businesses and with donations coming in from members of the public, they say they have been overwhelmed with the support.
Jeanna said: "People have been amazing, we haven't been told no from anyone. We're the same as every other food bank, we're trying to help each other as everybody's struggling at the minute.
"We will try our best to help people. We've started running a wee food bank lotto on our Facebook page, where the winner gets £50 and the rest goes back into the food bank. We let that gather up for two or three weeks then go buy a food shop with it.
"We do try to do deliveries, only two of our volunteers drive so we try to do around three deliveries a day. One of our volunteers is on a mobility scooter and she will deliver the parcels on that. We will try our best to help people.
"If it's an extra tin of beans, an extra tin of something, anything you think could make a dinner - we appreciate any donations. People are coming in through our doors crying their eyes out because they can't feed their families.
"A woman was in earlier today and it took two hours before she could build up the courage to walk through the door. People shouldn't have to be like that, it's wrong that people are sitting in hostels, sitting with no food in their own homes - it's wrong and shouldn't be happening."
Although people don't need referrals to use the Skegoneill Community Food Bank - they can just stop by the building - the team have started working alongside nearby Blossoms Baby Bank. They work together to make sure families can get all items they need.
"People can private message us on Facebook, can phone the food bank, or they can just walk through the door, there's no referral needed here. People feel degraded enough without having to go and get a referral," Jeanna added.
In the five months since they first opened their doors, Jeanna said demand has been steadily increasing. She has urged any local politicians to stop by the food bank to see the extent of the need in their community.
Jeanna said: "It needs to stop, there needs to be something done. I would invite any politician to come in here and spend a day with us to see what we see.
"I get up at 6am every morning and I'm right onto the phone talking to families or calling around asking for donations. You have to, or else people would be starving.
"We're cross-community, we come from the New Lodge, the Shankill, Ardoyne, we're from everywhere and we all help each other. Our volunteers are all there for each other, we all support each other - if we couldn't do that we couldn't support other people."
The Skegoneill Community Food Bank is based at 33-35 Ashfield Gardens. You can find out more and get in touch through their Facebook page by clicking here.
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