Charities such as food banks and helplines have regularly been used by members of the public before the Covid pandemic hit.

But as people around the region have been either furloughed or made unemployed altogether in recent months, has the use of these services increased?

Sam Gilchrist from the Hexham-based West Northumberland food bank believed that although they now help people is different compared to last March, the number of people relying on the service has massively increased.

“One of the biggest things we’ve noticed is that we seem to be dealing with a different ‘set’ of people,” said Sam.

“Before we were forced to close our doors and go delivery only, we’d see a lot of people who became regulars who often just wanted a chat when they were here. Now, we don’t hear much from them people at all.”

The West Northumberland Food Bank now deals with up to 80 different households every week and is now busier than ever before, seemingly proving that more people are needing to access vital items in the middle of a global pandemic.

“We’re incredibly busy at times,” added Sam.

“Something else that seems to be a trend is that we have a range of people using our service - especially now.

“In terms of people, we seem to have a range of both ages and circumstances. Some people we work with are using us ‘to get their feet on the ground’ so to speak say if they’ve been furloughed or recently made unemployed, whereas we also have older people who rely us on a lot more too.”

Sam also explained that it’s not just needing essential food that is important when it comes to getting through the pandemic.

“I think the people who we don’t see now have been able to take advantage of the Chancellor’s increase in Universal Credit - something I hope he keeps after the pandemic - but I still worry those people may now have become more isolated as a result.”

Isolation is something that’s been a common theme over the last year due to the restrictions in place, and the number of people suffering from loneliness has seemingly increased even further during the third lockdown, according to a local charity’s project manager.

Annette McGlade is a community member of the Northumberland Community Development Company and also helps run the Tynedale Rural Information Service - an out of hours helpline for residents in the Tyne Valley - who believes more people lately have turned to the service for advice.

“Although we set the service up in lockdown, we’ve seen more people getting in touch with us than say a few months ago,” said Annette.

“I don’t know if it’s people getting fed up with the current situation, or if it’s loneliness or the uncertainty around everything that’s going on, but more people are using our service for sure.”

The TRIS line has been designed to be accessed when other services are unavailable; something Annette admitted could be a reason for the spike in demand for the service.

“I think because we’ve made ourselves reachable ‘out of hours’ - Friday-Monday 4pm-8pm, people use us when other charity phone lines and locations aren’t open in the area.

“A lot of the places people could use in the past are currently closed too - for example village halls and community centres - so I think we’ve been the place people have turned to if they’re worried or confused about something.”