Generous shoppers have been thanked after donating 3,731 meals at Romford Tesco Extra and 2,507 at Gallow's Corner Tesco Extra.

During the annual Tesco Food Collection at the end of November shoppers across the country donated enough packets, tins and boxes to provide 800,000 meals to help the Trussell Trust and FareShare in their vital work.

An additional collection held in the summer means that, nationwide, shoppers have donated more than 1.3 million meals through Tesco Food Collections this year. The supermarket chain tops up all customer donations to the collection by 20 per cent.

During the initial lockdown Tesco donated £15m of food, split between the two charities. The company has announced a further £4m of food for FareShare in recent months and donates two million meals a month of surplus food via the charity.

This year’s collection was held on November 19-21 amid lockdown with both charities facing an exceptional need for supplies. Food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network are expected to provide a food parcel every nine seconds this winter, while FareShare is supplying more than double the food that it did before the pandemic to 11,000 frontline charities and community groups feeding people across the UK.

Trussell Trust CEO Emma Revie said: “Throughout 2020, communities across the UK have stepped in to provide vital support to people left without enough money for the basics. And we have been truly humbled to see how much people are willing to give to food banks in our network as they face their busiest winter ever.

“It’s not right that any of us are forced to a charity for food but thanks to the incredible compassion and generosity of Tesco customers during the Tesco Food Collection, food banks in our network are able to continue to provide the lifeline of emergency support for local people in crisis this winter, while we work in the long term to build a hunger free future.”

Tesco’s head of community, Claire De Silva said: “With most of the UK in lockdown holding the collection was always going to be a challenge, but once again we have been amazed by the generosity of our customers, and the fact that we have now collected more than a million meals is amazing."

Shoppers who were unable to donate in store during the Tesco Food Collection can still show their support for the two charities by donating here.