Foodbanks get bumper stocks for Christmas

Both Batley Foodbank and the Fairshare Foodbank were the recipients of the generous bounty of food, clothes and gifts collected at the two stores in the run-up Black Friday.

MP Mike Wood (Lab, Batley and Spen) turned up to help out with the collections which were to be sent to Batley Food Bank, from the Batley store; and the Trussell Trust, from the Cleckheaton store.

Sandra Major, project leader at Batley Foodbank, paid tribute to the generosity of the donors, but insisted the hard work had only just begun.

“It is absolutely amazing,” she said. “This just adds to the collections we have had over the last few weeks which have been so positive.”

The collection at Batley Tesco totalled more than 862 kilos of food.

With Tesco pledging to swell the collection by an extra 30 per cent, it equates to more than 1,120 kilos – more than a tonne of food!

Sandra added: “This will go a long way towards helping people at such a busy time of year – we have been making up christmas parcels for some of the families that come here.

“But I don’t want to think that because we have been receiving so much that we don’t need any more.

“As soon as stuff comes in, it is gone very quickly. Work never finishes here and, unfortunately, more people are using our services than ever before.”

Cleckheaton Tesco broke their own records for foodbank collections, taking in 93 trays’ worth of food.

With each tray worth 10-15 meals, this worked out at more than 1,000 meals for hungry families.

“We had such a fantastic response from the people that came in here,” said organiser Sarah Whitehead. “It has been better than any other collection we have run.