SHOPPERS at Tesco in Kingsteignton donated 3,286 meals’ worth of long-life food items to the store’s Winter Food Collection.

Staff were overwhelmed by the generosity of customers who donated to the collection in store between November 25 and 30.

Every item donated in Kingsteignton provides much-needed support for charities FareShare and Trussell in the run-up to Christmas.

Donations to Trussell help food banks provide emergency food parcels to people who cannot afford the essentials, while donations to FareShare support thousands of frontline local charities.

This winter will see heightened levels of need for both charities’ services with the Christmas holidays being a particularly difficult time for families due to the increased costs that occur at this time of year.

With this in mind, Tesco provided an extra £500,000 of funding to FareShare and Trussell to meet this acute need.

Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said: ‘I just want to say a huge thank you to every single person who donated items at this year’s Winter Food Collection. Their generosity is always so amazing and really helps to make a huge impact in communities supported by Trussell and FareShare.’

Throughout the year Tesco donates unsold food to FareShare as part of its Community Food Connection scheme.

That means so far this year Tesco and its customers have given the equivalent of more than 39 million meals to both charities.

In addition to the donations of food, the pre-Christmas Winter Food Collection saw more than £340,000 donated to the charities by customers rounding up their bills at the till and donating through a link from Tesco’s online groceries website.

Kristopher Gibbon-Walsh, CEO at FareShare, said: ‘Every year, we are blown away by the generosity of Tesco customers at the Winter Food Collection, and this year is no exception.

‘Thank you to every single person that volunteered in store, donated an item of food, topped up their shopping bill, or made a donation to FareShare.

‘Your kind support will ensure we can continue getting food out into the community, bringing people together and strengthening communities this winter.’

Emma Revie, CEO of Trussell, added: ‘We are so grateful to Tesco for organising this year’s Winter Food Collection.

‘Thank you to Tesco customers for coming out in support of your local food bank, to ensure they can continue helping everyone in your local community who is facing hunger and hardship this winter.

‘Thanks to your efforts, we have collected 1.8 million meals to support people who need a food bank this winter.

‘Food banks in the Trussell community are a last resort for people who’ve been left facing hunger and hardship.

‘But with so many people unable to afford the essentials right now, food banks continue to provide exceptionally high levels of emergency food. Just over 1.4 million emergency food parcels were provided across the UK by food banks in our community, between April and September this year.’

With both charities continuing to need support, Tesco shoppers can continue to donate food at permanent collection points at every Tesco store in the UK or make a donation after their online shop.