The charity, which is marking its fifth anniversary, gets a significant proportion of its donations at this time of year, with several tonnes coming from churches and schools – but it needs somewhere to keep the food.

It lost the free use of a large storage area in Bracknell town centre in May after the owner rented the space out to a paying client. Ideally, Bracknell Foodbank is looking for 150 sq m of storage space Pat Hallett, project manager of Bracknell Foodbank, which is based at the Kerith Centre in Church Road, Bracknell, said: “We don’t have anywhere to put all the food. We are going to have to pay for excess storage; we don’t want to but will have to.

“I am quite sure that some organisation has got a large unused space we can use.” Mrs Hallett said the Kerith Community Church decided to set up a foodbank in September 2009 after seeing the number of people in need that it was helping was rising.

“The church has always fed people, whether they gave them Tesco vouchers or went shopping with them. We saw an increase in the number of people coming to us.” In its first year of operation, Bracknell Foodbank fed 1,000 people; in total, over the five years up to August 2014, it has helped almost 13,000 to date, made up of 8,770 adults and 4,180 children.

In December 2013 alone, the charity fed 561 adults and children.

“We didn’t anticipate we would be helping so many people. It did shock us and still does, in a way,” said Mrs Hallett.

“Many people think Bracknell is a fairly affluent area. But there are pockets of deprived areas.” However, she added the charity now sees a wider range of people come to it for help, not just the unemployed and those on very low incomes. Earlier this year, the team set up a foodbank in Ascot, and other churches nearby have set up their own foodbanks, including Crowthorne and Wokingham, in the past couple of years.

Mrs Hallett said: “We are seeing people who are working but who can’t feed their families. Salaries haven’t gone up, but the cost of living has. People generally are struggling.” She said Government and employers could do more to help and it was concerning that there was such a demand for foodbanks in the UK.

Although the presence of foodbanks in neighbouring areas has seen demand level out, Mrs Hallett said it was still helping between 200 and 300 people every month.

Key to meeting the large demand for its free food parcels has been the increasing generosity of the community.

“Support of the community has been unbelievable – businesses, individuals, churches and schools have all helped,” said Mrs Hallett.

She also paid tribute to her team at Bracknell Foodbank; while Mrs Hallett is paid part-time by the Kerith Centre, none of the other volunteers – including her husband Geoff, the charity’s logistics manager – are paid.

“We have 60 volunteers and they are absolutely brilliant –whether they are working in our store, packing bags or meeting clients; they are very compassionate people.” “It is very uplifting; we are restoring hope and diginity to people who need our help.”