WORKING families and single young men have been seeking support from a new food bank scheme in Bury St Edmunds.

A number of organisations in the town came together to launch the food bank in November.

Gatehouse, which supports vulnerable and disadvantaged people in west Suffolk, is the umbrella charity which is running the scheme.

At an Our Place Forum meeting in Bury St Edmunds on Monday night, Amanda Bloomfield, chief executive of Gatehouse, said they had only given out two parcels of food to those aged over 65. Other recipients were those aged 25 to 45.

She said: “It’s actually working families and single young men who are having the parcels so there’s a slight difference to what we expected.”

She said the food bank had given out close to 60 parcels from November.

“However my view is we would have given more parcels had other charities and schemes over the Christmas period not have been there.”

She added Gatehouse gave out 300 food parcels for December alone, which does not include the food bank parcels, and other organisations had also given out food.

She said moving forward, all food bank parcels are now being collected from Gatehouse.