A Bexley football team have announced a charity match to take place next month in aid of a local foodbank, following alarming reports of increased foodbank usage in the area.

Erith Town FC, who play in the Southern Counties East Football League, have designated their upcoming fixture against Punjab United on December 8 as a 'Football for Food' match in collaboration with Bexley Foodbank.

Supporters who bring four or more non-perishable food items to a collection point at Erith Leisure Centre on the day will gain free entry to the match.

The announcement comes following a report by The Trussell Trust, which supports Bexley Foodbank, showing that 3,329 three-day emergency food parcels were handed out between April and September of this year. 1,260 of these were children.

Manager of the Bexley Foodbank, Gillian Bates said that she has seen a significant increase in the number of people using the foodbank since she started in 2013.

"From 2013 to 2014, 2,047 parcels were handed out to people. For 2018 to 2019 that will probably rise to around 6,000," said Ms Bates.

Upon seeing the figures released from the Trussell Trust, Gillian described it as "quite frightening" as she said it puts pressure on those working at the foodbank to make sure they have enough food and volunteers.

Gillian explained people come to the foodbank for a variety of reasons such as homelessness, addiction and debt. However she also said that she has noticed that people also come as they are waiting on benefit payments to come through.

"It would seem that our chunk of people coming are having their payments stopped or delayed from the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions)," said Ms Bates.

This point was echoed by chief executive of The Trussell Trust, Emma Revie who recently said: "We’re seeing soaring levels of need at foodbanks. The time to act is now. If the five-week wait isn’t reduced, the only way to stop even more people being forced to foodbanks this winter will be to pause all new claims to Universal Credit, until funding is in place to reduce the five-week wait."

A DWP spokeswoman said:"The reasons why people use foodbanks are complex, so it’s wrong to link a rise to any one cause.

"Universal Credit replaces an out-of-date, complex benefits system with cliff edges that disincentivised work and often trapped people in unemployment."

A spokesperson for 'The Dockers' has said: "This is the first Erith Town initiative of our commitment to Bexley Foodbank, whose headquarters are local to us in Erith.

"We hope that everyone will back this promotion and also thank Punjab United for their support."