CHARITY workers feeding deprived, hungry people in Keighley town centre each week have appealed for help to cope with an ever-increasing demand for their services.

Faisal Tariq, fundraising manager for the Intouch Foundation mobile food kitchen, said a growing number of people were sliding into poverty and becoming dependent on the assistance offered by charities like Intouch.

One of its food kitchen sessions in Church Green last month was the busiest evening they had seen for years, with 77 first meals served.

Mr Tariq, who lives in Keighley, said: “Demand is rising and poverty is worsening with homelessness and cuts to the benefit sector.

“We witness the results of that on a weekly basis, and are seeing more new faces all the time at our food kitchens.

“We hear horrifying stories of people being made homeless within only a week or two of losing their jobs.

“So we do need more volunteers to help us deal with this, either to work on site or to get involved with fundraising events.”

The Intouch Foundation, which also operates a mobile food kitchen in Bradford, has been running since 2013.

Mr Tariq, who has been involved since the start, said he never anticipated the project would become so busy in such a short space of time.

“We began as quite a small initiative but ever since then it’s just been growing and growing,” he said.

“We’ve done just short of 200,000 meals in total.

“Intouch Foundation also works internationally now. When there has been a national disaster somewhere in the world we partner up with relief organisations working on the ground and we provide the food.

“Last year we provided over 30,000 meals to refugees in the camp at Calais, and during Eid we gave out over 2,000 meals to people in Ghana.”

Mr Tariq said the co-ordinator for the Keighley Intouch food kitchen, Khurm Mehzar, had moved onto a new role and been replaced by a new co-ordinator – Samera Naaz.

She said: “We need local schools, places of worship and businesses to get involved with us and help make a difference to the community.

“They can either volunteer manpower or can help us raise funds.”

Organisations prepared to give support to the charity can visit the Intouch Foundation Facebook page or go to intouchfoundation.co.uk/ to get in touch.

The group’s Keighley service, offering hot drinks and food, operates in Church Green each Wednesday from 6.30pm to 8pm.