Families in crisis in Stoke-on-Trent to receive food essentials, as demand for foodbanks increase

Big-hearted volunteers from business water retailer Water Plus, which has its main office in Stoke-on-Trent, helped Stoke-on-Trent Foodbank gather more than 80 crates of essential food and other items to help families in need during winter months, across Stoke-on-Trent.

From tinned soups, vegetables and meat, to tuna, toothpaste and sanitary towels – the food donations amounted to more than 880kg, as the volunteers engaged shoppers at Tesco Extra stores in Hanley and Longton.

The amount collected will feed 90 people with three nutritionally balanced meals, for three days, in the emergency food packs. It follows volunteers from Water Plus helping to gather more than 50 crates, holding 513kg of food items, in a foodbank drive at ASDA Wolstanton in June, 2025.

And a food donation drop-off at the new Water Plus main office, in Stoke-on-Trent, this year also added to the items for those in need, including pasta and tins of vegetables to provide 3-day food packs for people.

Corrine Boden MBE, Stoke-on-Trent Foodbank Director of Operations, said: “Winter is our busiest time of year, and we face pressure to meet ongoing demand. It is challenging to hide poverty around Christmas time, and for those who are most vulnerable, whose money runs out before the month does, are the ones who are in communication with us daily. It hits home when people call in to discuss the challenges they face. However, this motivates us to do more to ensure our guests’ needs are met.

“Nearly 20,000 people have been supported with foodbank parcels this year, an average of 1,750 per month, and around 40% of them were children.

“The need for the foodbank is up from 1,000 a month. We’re seeing more families, which have adults working, who are in crisis and struggling and need help to put enough food on the table.

“The food donations and emergency parcels are literally a lifeline to those in most need in our communities, so it’s great the kind-hearted Water Plus team have once again supported the foodbank, bringing meaningful impacts for communities.”

Between April 2024 and March 2025, nearly 20,000 people have been fed through Stoke-on-Trent Foodbank. Families and individuals in crisis are referred by other agencies to access emergency food packs, targeting those most in need of the provisions.

Caroline Wolfe, Community Liaison Co-ordinator at Stoke-on-Trent Foodbank, said: “We couldn’t help children and adults in need and facing hardship without the support from businesses, brilliant volunteers, including those from Water Plus and the generosity of people across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.”

Annual figures released by Trussell in May 2025 showed more than 100,000 emergency food parcels were handed out in Staffordshire and Cheshire, with 17,059 of those for people in Stoke-on-Trent, including 6,543 parcels for children.
Overall, the number of emergency food parcels distributed through Trussell foodbanks, in 2024-2025, is 51% up on the April 2019 to 31st March 2020 year, with a 44% increase in the West Midlands.

And the Water Plus team’s collection, at its main office, weighed in at 16.52kg, with the total collected from the June volunteering and staff collection feeding more than 57 people.

Jason Scagell, Chief Executive of business water retailer Water Plus, which provides services for more than 690,000 customer supply points in England and Scotland, said:

“The enthusiasm and efforts of our team have been great to see, supporting local communities and removing barriers in people’s lives, to help more people thrive. Increasing lasting positive impacts in communities is very important to our great people who work for us, and for our business too as we’re on a mission to build more longer-term partnerships, as together we help more customers save water and cut carbon emissions.

“We’ve a team that’s passionate about providing great customer service, as well as helping communities in England and Scotland to deliver a big and lasting difference – and there’s more ahead on what we’ll be doing, at Water Plus, in 2026.”

Water Plus, which moved into its new HQ in 2025 in Stoke-on-Trent and won a 2025 UK Customer Satisfaction Award for Sustainable Customer Service, supports charities throughout each year, with employees getting involved in fundraising and is part of a Careers Hub working with three schools.

Staff also get the opportunity to spend a working day volunteering each year, with some of the Water Plus team also helping to deliver a flagship Cup Final event for more than 200 young footballers, from across Staffordshire in 2025 in its partnership with Staffordshire Girls and Ladies Football League.

Alongside the foodbank collections, the company also delivered an event this year that brought businesses together to help fund 300 more hours of support for young people facing cancer in England and Scotland. It means Youth Support Co-ordinator hours will be funded, in its charity partnership with the Teenage Cancer Trust, to help people facing cancer in Stoke-on-Trent and in other parts of Staffordshire and the Midlands.

The community actions also come at a time when Water Plus is also looking for people to join its customer teams, after it made a multi-million pound investment in its new headquarters site at Trentham Lakes.