Eastbourne charity receives more than three tonnes of donations

The Winter Food Collection at Tesco stores in Lottbridge Drove, Hampden Park and Langney took place on December 1-3 (Thursday-Saturday).

In total Hampden Park collected 685.6kg - 70 crates, Langney collected 709.2kg - 74 crates, and the Lottbridge Drove store collected 1,936kg - 178 crates.

Eastbourne Foodbank said volunteers and staff met shoppers across the town to talk about the charity’s work and to collect food from those able to donate during the cost of living crisis.

Campaigns and communications manager Jess Holliday added: “We understand that everyone is finding their money is not stretching as far at the moment, and with Christmas round the corner there is an immense amount of pressure on families.

“It was great to chat to people about our work at all three Tesco stores and we were so grateful that people gave so generously, especially in such difficult times. We would like to thank everyone who took the time to come and speak to us and support our work.

“We would also like to thank Tesco for its continued support. The donations made at this year’s winter food collection will help so many people in financial crisis.”

All donations will be used to support people across Eastbourne who are experiencing hardship and will be forced to use emergency food parcels in the coming months.

The campaigns and communications manager added: "It was amazing to see the generosity from so many and it also gave us a chance to have valuable conversations with the public.

"Many people feel it is terrible that such a vast amount of people are relying on foodbanks in 21st century Britain. We were very struck by the people's resolve that something needs to change because they agreed this situation is completely unacceptable. None of us should need to use a foodbank, yet, at Eastbourne Foodbank we provided 2,700 emergency food parcels in November.”

The charity is encouraging people to join their fight by signing up to its campaigns mailing list at [email protected].

Eastbourne Foodbank had said it was 125 per cent busier in a recent six-month period compared to last year.

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