Foodbank benefits from generosity at Tesco

Shoppers at a King's Lynn supermarket have helped a new foodbank in the town get off to a flying start.

The charity collected tins of food at the Tesco store during Saturday and organisers were delighted with the response from members of the public who donated to the cause.

The Lynn foodbank hopes to be running later this autumn and will offer crisis relief to families in the area who are referred via frontline services, including social workers and GPs.

Organised with Churches Together, the new service will provide basic, non-perishable food for up to three days.

Project manager Kevan Crane said the response from shoppers at the Hardwick Road store had been fantastic and the donations flooded in throughout the day.

'We have had a tremendous response and are grateful to everyone, including Tesco, who has helped the foodbank,' he said.

Shoppers collected a list from volunteers at the store and were able to contribute items including tinned fruit and vegetables, canned meat or fish, tea and coffe and UHT milk

The charity is also set to benefit from a number of schools and churches in the area through the forthcoming harvest festival events.

'People in Lynn have already responded generously to the appeal. The Grimston Road Co-op sotre and Booker Cash and Carry have both given supplies. Grimston Junior School and individuals from local churches had been involved in fundraising activities, which have collectively raised �2,000,' said Mr Crane.

Churches Together is working with the Trussell Trust which has developed a network of 100 foodbanks across the country which fed 61.468 people over the last year.

Mr Crane said the current economic difficulties experienced by some people through redundancy or illness, for example, meant they were not able to afford the basics to provide nutritional food for their families.

The foodbank is designed to provide short-term support to people in crisis and is not a provision for the homeless. Those using the facillity will be given a maximum of three vouchers consecutively and a total of nine will be given in a year.

Further food collections are being planned for the future and Mr Crane said the charity would be approaching other supermarkets in the town.