THE Highbridge Area Foodbank was thrilled this week as it received more than 1,000kg of food donations after supermarket giant Tesco launched its ‘Stop the Hunger’ campaign.

The foodbank was one of more than 400 that took part in the Tesco campaign, which aimed to be the biggest neighbourhood food collection they had ever done.

The collection sought to encourage customers to donate long life food to their two charity partners, The Trussell Trust and FareShare who both support families in the UK who find themselves in desperate need of support.

Residents from Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge donated a wide variety of items including loo rolls, sanitary products and canned goods. Overall, Highbridge Foodbank collected 73 crates of food which in total weighed 1,111 kilograms.

The donations have made a huge difference to the foodbank which has been struggling this year after the introduction of the Universal Credit system meant the charity was giving out more emergency parcels than ever.

This is a welcome boost for the charity as newly released figures from the Trussell Trust suggest foodbanks will have a tough winter as there was a 45 per cent increase in the number of three-day emergency food parcels provided by Trussell Trust foodbanks last December compared to the monthly average for 2015/16 financial year.

David McAuley, chief executive at The Trussell Trust, said before the Tesco collection began: “For families already managing tight budgets, winter is often the hardest time of year.

“Every December Trussell Trust foodbanks meet people who have been hit by something unavoidable, like redundancy or illness, and are facing Christmas unable to afford food.”

“New foodbank statistics out tomorrow suggest foodbank use could double in the lead up to Christmas. We’re very grateful for the donations of Tesco shoppers, colleagues and volunteers, your generosity will help stop hunger this Christmas.”

Beverley Milner-Simonds, a trustee at Highbridge foodbank, and said she was overwhelmed by the amount of support they received during the collection. “The three-day annual collection at Tesco was a great success with around 65 boxes of of food been donated by customers to the store. This food will be sorted by the volunteers and distributed to local families in Burnham-on-Sea & Highbridge over the coming weeks.”

Beverley took to social media to thank Tesco shoppers for their donations after they received three trolley loads in three hours, a £25 donation and a new foodbank volunteer.

National figures have not yet been released from the Trussell Trust about the amount of food collected but will be released next week.