RESIDENTS are being urged to back a campaign to stop people going hungry this summer.
Barrow Foodbank wants people to back the UK's biggest food collection at Tesco from Monday June 27 to Sunday July 3, by donating items in store or volunteering to help.
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The Neighbourhood Food Collection is run biannually by Tesco, the Trussell Trust and food redistribution charity FareShare to provide emergency rations to people in crisis.
Barrow Foodbank, a member of the Trussell Trust network, provides emergency parcels containing three days' supply of emergency food to people referred by a frontline professional, such as Citizens Advice, housing associations or children's centres.
In 2015/16, 2,686 three-day emergency food supplies were provided by Barrow Foodbank to people in crisis.
Last summer, thanks to the generosity of Tesco customers 41,257 meals were donated to Barrow Foodbank as a result of the collection.
'Lifeblood'
Ann Mills, Barrow Foodbank project manager, said: "Anyone can find themselves in need of a foodbank.
"Every week we speak to people who never thought they'd face going hungry, but something unexpected happened - an illness, redundancy or the boiler breaking - and they were thrown into crisis.
"We're glad we can be here to help, but our work can only continue because of the unfailing generosity of the community.
"We're honestly overwhelmed by the food, money and time people give.
"Volunteers in particular are the lifeblood of the work we do in helping stop local families going hungry, and the more volunteers we have at the Neighbourhood Food Collection, the more food we can collect.
"We'd love it if you could show us your support this summer."
Volunteers
Volunteers are being sought across the week to encourage shoppers to help out in the campaign.
People can sign up to help for a couple of hours, and will be needed to offer customers a shopping list of items they can donate, gather the donated food at the store exit, thank customers and box up.
People interested in donating or volunteering can ring 01229 343436.
Tesco competitions
The local group of Tesco stores are also running two competitions to encourage donations.
Infant, junior and senior schools which collect the most food in weight can win £50 Teso gift vouchers or a tablet.
Photos of donations and tweets using #everycanhelps can win £20 gift vouchers.
Donations needed
Barrow Foodbank is currently asking in particular for donations of:
- Pasta sauce
- Tinned fruit
- UHT fruit juice
- Tinned meat
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