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Spotlight on: Food Banks

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    Published: 20 July 2026

Maggie, our Food Bank Adviser, explains her role helping those in crisis with benefit checks and debt advice referrals, supporting longer-term financial stability.

Image of a foodbank - someone handing over a box of food in a clear container

“My name is Maggie and I am a Food Bank Adviser at Citizens Advice LeicesterShire. You can find me at the Lutterworth Food Bank on Fridays (12 pm – 3 pm) and at the Countesthorpe Food Bank on Tuesdays (11.30 am – 1:30 pm).

Obviously, it is at times of crisis that people use the food bank, so this can be anyone where they have experienced a change in their circumstances that has impacted upon their finances. We are all living in incredibly hard times and even when working, people are having to make choices about prioritising paying bills over buying food.

 
My role is to support people who are using the food bank to maximise their incomes. I can give advice where I can, or will signpost for advice about their rights and choices. 
 
This includes exploring benefits that they may be eligible for and helping them with the applications. I can signpost within Citizens Advice to the debt advice team or the energy advice team where needed. I can also support with some housing issues.
 
I help people complete forms, make telephone calls and liaise on their behalf with other agencies. I also support people through the debt process when they are working with the debt advice team if they don’t have the digital skills or equipment to do this themselves.”

Food Bank Case Study

A hands-on approach to complex problems & supporting long-term financial stability

Like Maggie points out, our role is to help food bank users maximise their income through things like benefit checks and debt advice in order to support longer-term financial stability and reduce reliance on crisis support.

This often involves dealing with complex cases that require a combination of urgent support and long-term solutions. For example, we supported a client facing multiple financial pressures, exacerbated by a recent health diagnosis within their household. This included a significant amount of debt across several areas and difficulty affording essentials, whilst digital exclusion made managing bills and online applications even more challenging.

Maggie felt it was really important to emphasise that the client wasn’t lacking in motivation or awareness; they had already sought debt help from a national charity themselves, but couldn’t afford the fees. We recognised they needed practical, hands-on support to start untangling their problems.

Support was prioritised where an immediate, tangible difference could be made while building towards longer-term solutions: an essential household appliance was secured after completing a hardship grant application, worth up to £500, and we referred the client to our Money Advice service given the scale of their debt, booking a follow-up appointment to explore a disability-related benefit application connected to the recent diagnosis (which could also help lift their benefit cap). Maggie also planned a full benefit check at their next meeting to ensure nothing else would be missed.

The true measure of impact here isn’t just the appliance – it’s that a client juggling multiple forms of household debt and a recent health diagnosis, with very limited digital means to navigate any of it alone, now has an adviser actively working through each of those pressures with them, one step at a time.

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