Students have helped to collect a mammoth 241kg of food for the Exeter food bank this Christmas.
Together with local residents and community activists, numerous collection points across the city were organised in the last month.
The number of people fed by Exeter food bank has been steadily increasing over the last few years as food poverty becomes a significant problem across the UK. In 2014/15, a total of 4,580 residents used the service, including 1,072 children. This is an increase from 3,981.
Joe Levy, the main coordinator for the project said: “Collecting in support of Exeter Food Bank has been incredible, and has shown how generous Exeter’s communities are. When we were collecting I got a real sense that both the volunteers and those who donated were passionate about helping the most vulnerable in our city, so it was so fantastic to hear that we had collected 241kg of food, an amount I don’t think any of us imagined we’d collect.
“We’ve decided we’re going to do it again next year because of how successful it has been. However there are still over 4500 people in Exeter who rely on emergency food parcels and Exeter Food Bank are going to need support all year round, not just at Christmas.”
Exeter food bank, on Fore Street, welcomes donations of non-perishable food items. To find out how to donate, visit their website at exeter.foodbank.org.uk