The Bonny Downs Community Association found itself supporting as many as 140 households a week at the height of the lockdown. It normally helps around 20 households a week but saw this figure increase to 85 at the beginning of July.

Angie Allgood, who is part of the senior leadership team based at The Well Community Centre, in Vicarage Lane, East Ham, is in charge of the poverty response and has been running the food bank for seven years. She says that the challenges they had to cope with as a small charity were “unbelievable”.

Volunteer at the foodbank at Ascension Church Royal Docks; Credits: Newham Council

Among the people who were asking for help during the pandemic were international students (who make up around a quarter of household supported), European citizens without settled status and South Indian families.

The reason behind this is a complex one. There are people living in the UK with the right to stay granted by the Home Office, but under the condition of No Recourse to Public Funds some of them are not allowed to work.

The solution, for many, is to work in pizza and chicken shops, hospitality, construction and cleaning, in insecure employment. When Coronavirus hit, the jobs suddenly ceased and the workers weren’t eligible to furlough.

According to Angie Allgood, Coronavirus has revealed a housing crisis in the borough that she didn’t know existed. Most of the families who came to the charity for the first time in lockdown tried to spread the cost of the rent with other families and ended up living in overcrowded accommodation.

Allgood recalls a family of five who shared a three-bedroom house with another two families and four international students. At first, she thought it was exceptional, but found out later that most families she talks to at the food bank are living in the same conditions.

The big question for her is:

“Now we know it. What are we going to do about it?”

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