Kingston Foodbank helps the hungry

Kingston Foodbank's first supermarket collection day took place last Saturday and saw over one tonne of food donated to local people facing crisis.

Shoppers at Waitrose in Surbiton gave the impressive quantity of non-perishable food items to Kingston Foodbank volunteers, who will now sort the goods ready for use by people in need.

The charity (set up in partnership with the Trussell Trust and the 111th foodbank to be set up in the UK) operates on a simple model: food items are donated by the public, volunteers sort and pack the food, the foodbank works with frontline professionals who refer people in crisis to the foodbank by a voucher system, then vouchers are exchanged at the foodbank for three days of emergency food while agencies work to help with the underlying cause of the crisis.

Kingston Foodbank organiser Paul Pickhaver said: "The response to Kingston Foodbank from the public, front line services and local businesses has been amazing. Over 40 front line agencies have already signed up to act as referral agents and since we opened on 2 December, 64 local people have received emergency food."

Paul continues: "Hunger is an issue for some families in Kingston today, but through the foodbank we are seeing the whole community come together in an incredible way to stop people in our town going without food."

Visit www.kingston.foodbank.org.uk for more information.