Major UK supermarkets have been asked to set aside supplies for food banks after a tumultuous few days in which several emergency food aid charities closed and others struggled to meet rocketing demand from people hit by the fallout from coronavirus.

Many food banks said they were finding it impossible to replenish food stocks, even as thousands more people turned to them for help, and others said they had been overwhelmed as hundreds of elderly volunteer regulars were forced to go into self-isolation.

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“The emergency service food banks provide is being severely compromised by lack of donations, rationed access to supermarkets, the vulnerability of volunteers and a rapidly increasing need for help,” said Sabine Goodwin, the coordinator of the Independent Food Aid network (Ifan), which represents about 40% of UK food banks.

Ifan has written to supermarkets asking them to allow emergency food aid providers to bypass restrictions which limit each customer to buy just three of each product, and to set aside online delivery slots for charities. Some food banks spend thousands of pounds a month on supermarket deliveries but can no longer get slots.

At least six independent food banks are known to have closed down in the past few days and there are warnings that for many more it will become unsustainable to keep operating unless the government takes action to head off a surge of people turning to food banks for help by making welfare benefits more generous and easier to get.

In addition, two food banks from the 426-strong Trussell Trust food bank network have announced they are to shut their doors. Islington food bank will close on Monday after running out of food and volunteers, and Knottingley food bank in West Yorkshire shut down after its food supplies were stolen during a break-in.

Emma Revie, the chief executive of the Trussell trust said: “Wide-ranging conversations are under way with national partners, exploring how we can work together to help ensure people can access support in the coming weeks, how we get vital food to the places it’s most needed, and how we can help boost volunteer numbers in areas where extra volunteers may be needed.”

There are about 2,000 food banks in the UK, most having sprung up in the last few years in response to benefit cuts and restrictions on social security. Many already struggle to keep on top of demand from people left penniless by long waits for universal credit payments.

Kirkcaldy food bank in Fife, which gives out up to 1,200 food parcels a month, felt the first tremor at the start of the week, when government guidance on self-isolation meant more than two-thirds of its 146 strong volunteer team – aged over 70 or with underlying health issues – were forced overnight to stay at home.

Then came the supply shock. It usually spends £10,000 a month on online deliveries from local supermarkets. But massive panic-buying meant it could not get a slot. “It’s been stressful,” says the food bank chair, Joyce Leggate. “We had to send volunteers rushing round cash-and-carrys to try and find supplies.”

Leggate, a retired NHS midwife, said that as demand rose, food stocks would become increasingly harder to come by. Food parcels have been given out lacking the usual staples of UHT milk, meat, coffee and tea, all of which have become hard to source.

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She said: “At the end of the day, we are volunteers. If Kirkcaldy food bank didn’t exist, where would people with nothing go for food? How would local and central government feed people in dire need?”

Rayleigh food bank in Essex reported record numbers of people coming to its food banks, and was almost forced to close on Wednesday because of the volume of demand from newlyunemployed people. “People who would not normally come to a food bank turned up,” the food bank leader, Jason Content, said.

“I had conversations with pregnant women who had been sacked because their companies did not want to pay their maternity, and people who until this week had good jobs, in banks, who now have nothing. Nobody budgeted, nobody has savings and they thought they had a job for life.”

The food bank expects “a tonne of people” next week, and is preparing to nearly double the number of food parcels it normally gives out to just short of 300, said Content. “If this is happening in Rayleigh, the third wealthiest place in Essex, imagine what’s going on in Southend or Clacton.”

However, food supplies will be a problem, he said. The food bank has good relations with local supermarkets who supply it with surplus products. But that source is now drying up. Content want supermarkets to act: “We have to feed poorer people. So do not sell everything you have, put a percentage aside for people with nothing.”