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  Food banks struggle to feed hungry as demand rises
  
  Charities torn between helping those in need and resisting prospect of taking over duty previously
  
  fulfilled by state
  
  
  In the 13th most deprived borough in England, a fragile part of the local emergency welfare ecosystem
  
  is in danger of collapse. Haringey food bank, in north London, has warned it is struggling to meet the
  
  explosion in demand for food parcels from local people living on the breadline.
  
  The food bank was evicted from its rent-free warehouse at short notice by a developer last November
  
  and has not found a suitable home. It still collects food donations but now distributes them from two
  
  small temporary outlets, a church and a local play centre. There is little storage, no room to talk to clients
  
  and no office space. The landline telephone number listed on its website no longer works. Its one
  
  full-time administrator has had to be laid off.
  
  At the same time demand is rising inexorably. The food bank's food vouchers are distributed to
  
  the local job centre as well as charities and social workers, who in turn issue them to penniless,
  
  hungry clients.
  
  The number of emergency food parcels given out has doubled in the past 12 months, and is
  
  expected to soar again as welfare reforms such as the bedroom tax and the benefit cap, which
  
  will cut the incomes of thousands of the borough's poorest residents, begin to bite.

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