My charity helps people put food on the table - working parents need us more than ever before

"I'm not buying presents, because I don't want to be in debt. My children know mummy’s not going to buy them anything tangible."

But as Head of Community Engagement at The Felix Project, this is something I have been hearing again and again - and not from the kind of people you might expect.

The Felix Project is a food redistribution charity; it rescues food that would otherwise go to waste and delivers it to organisations helping feed people who are struggling to afford to put food on the table. This month, we released new figures that revealed around one in four working parents are now turning to food support services to ensure they can feed their children.

The lady who said the above is one example. Edith works for a school, but her wages only cover her expenses, so after rent and bills, she is left with under £100 for food each month. That works out at around £3 a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner – and when bread and milk alone can come to that, it means a food bank is her only option.

She uses a service run by Angels Breakfast and Afterschool Club in Peckham. Every week, she gets a bag of groceries, including fresh fruit and vegetables. This ultimately means she can feed herself and her 16-year-old. Edith said "I don’t know what I would do without it."

Traditionally, food banks were seen as mainly being used by people on benefits or pensioners, but it seems more and more working people are struggling to get by. Teaching assistants, carers, nurses, admin staff, so many people who are in work but finding wages and expenses do not add up.

The 23 per cent could equate to 1.7m parents across the UK. Of those, one in four use food services every one to two weeks so they have enough food to feed their families. Around one in ten parents have had to send their children to bed hungry at least once a week because they cannot afford enough healthy food, equating to almost 722,000 parents.

This is a stark picture; to have proof that children are going to bed hungry every week is heartbreaking, and to know that, without food banks, so many working people would go hungry demonstrates the need we are facing across every part of society.

The Felix Project and the organisations we support are doing everything we can to help, but as we move deeper into winter and with Christmas just around the corner, we know the demand is only getting worse.

We hope this winter, if you are able to buy presents for your loved ones - think nothing of spending an extra £40 or £50 on food during the festive season - please think about the people who are not as fortunate. If you can donate to The Felix Project or your local foodbank, it could really help.

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Rachel Ledwith is Head of Community Engagement at The Felix Project.

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