More than 3,000 people have been prevented from going hungry thanks to the Medway Foodbank.

More than 1,000 children were among the 3,131 people given food parcels by the charity over the past 19 months.

And the demand for help means the foodbank has expanded its services.

It has now opened a new warehouse to store donated food and there are plans to open up another two drop-in centres in the next two months, bringing the total in the Towns to six.

Co-ordinator Helen Gallagher said: “From early this year we have seen a rise in the clients coming.

“The welfare reforms are impacting local families and we’ve also seen an increase of people on low income or part-time work finding it much harder to cope.

“The majority of our clients are having huge delays on benefits or are on low wages or part-time work and are feeling the squeeze with the increase in the cost of food.

“When we started in December 2011 I don’t think we realised how busy we were going to be and how much need there was.”

In total, 26,867 kilos of donated food has been distributed to families in emergency need.

A further 8,000 kilos of food is stored in the new warehouse, on Medway City Estate, Strood.

The opening ceremony was carried out by the Mayor of Medway, Cllr Josie Iles.

Ms Gallagher added: "The opening of the warehouse was wonderful.

“We had fantastic support with over 80 people there. Our new warehouse will enable us to support people much more effectively.”

A centre will be opened in Walderslade later this month, followed by one in Twydall in September.

• To find out more or to volunteer with the foodbank visit medway.foodbank.org.uk