GENEROUS Redditch residents donated 1.7 tonnes of food in just two days during a Christmas appeal organised by local charity Acts of Kindness at Tesco Express.
Volunteers handed out leaflets with suggested purchases which shoppers could buy and donate to the charity as they left the supermarket.
These will now go towards making up more than 600 hampers which will be distributed to local people in need referred to the charity by borough and government agencies.
The Reverend Robin Baker, who set up the charity AoK, said: “It all went very well – as usual we had very many generous people who have given food to us and we’d like to express our thanks for that.
“We are now putting together food parcels and hampers and working our way through that.”
The Redditch Standard first raised the issue of the Rev Baker’s charity drive at the start of November as he launched his annual an appeal for toys for Christmas for the borough’s needy.
This brought in such a flood of donations of both toys and cash that a fortnight later the focus switched to the Tesco appeal, which happened last Friday and Saturday (December 2-3).
“We have had a constant stream of toys and cash donations coming through and we cannot thank people enough,” said the Rev Baker.
AoK also runs the town’s foodbank and he said there should now be sufficient in storage to make up any shortfalls should demand on the charity increase.
“We need to have some reserves because always at the last minute we will get a referral from some agency saying a family is in crisis this Christmas and can we help,” said Rev Baker.
