FOODBANKS are ramping up efforts to carry on for as long as possible over the coming weeks as the coronavirus pandemic takes hold.

Panic buyers have emptied supermarket shelves of basic goods like pasta, tinned food and cereal and necessities like toilet roll and Swindon Food Collective doesn't know how long it is going to be able to feed people.

Manager Cher Smith is in talks with the borough council, schools and the community to prepare for what’s to come.

She told the Adver: “We’re in the planning stages of having a contingency plan ready in case directives come from the government because all our volunteers are over 65 so that could have a devastating effect on us.

“We’re also looking at if the schools close whether children will need vouchers and our support. There’s a huge range of impacts that could happen to us and we’re trying to plan for a situation where we can continue running for as long as possible.”

Cher said: “Depending on what happens next week, our plan will look at whether our volunteers choose to stop working.

"We would have to put a call out for more volunteers.”

The collective has seven foodbanks across Swindon but government announcements might force them to become one as more restrictions are put in place.

The Easter holiday is a concern because children will be at home and parents will have more mouths to feed.

And the plan is changing day to day because there is so much uncertainty over whether schools and stores will close.

Cher said: “If people can still donate to us that would be appreciated because we are solely reliant on that.

"We just don’t know what’s going to happen because we’re so reliant on volunteers that they are crucial to our operation.

“We are talking to schools, welfare officers and safeguarding to let people know if they need our help they can have it ."

“We’re just going to carry on as best as we can and for as long as we can,” she pledged.

Donations of food and supplies can be made in superstores and smaller shops across Swindon.

For more information and collection points visit www.swindonfoodcollective.org.