Record number of festive food bank donations flood in to help some of Leyland's most vulnerable people

A town food bank has been inundated with donations following a pre-Christmas appeal.
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The St Mary’s Church food bank in Leyland launched an early December appeal, backed by the Guardian, to donate goods ready for its Christmas Day food hampers.

The town's people responded with a record number of festive donations received with 160 Christmas hampers given to those in need.

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Farington Parish Coun Mike Otter, pictured with Barbara Bidwell, has been overwhelmed with Christmas donations to St Marys Church food bankFarington Parish Coun Mike Otter, pictured with Barbara Bidwell, has been overwhelmed with Christmas donations to St Marys Church food bank
Farington Parish Coun Mike Otter, pictured with Barbara Bidwell, has been overwhelmed with Christmas donations to St Marys Church food bank

"The Leyland people have been outstanding.”

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Volunteer Mike Otter, a Farington Parish Councillor, said: “The support from the public, businesses and supermarkets was fantastic.

"We actually got a lot of donations so it enabled us to send out more in the food hampers over Christmas.

“We got more than we have ever before at this time of year.

"But we have to remember the food bank is not just for Christmas but for the whole year. It will be used as the months go by.

“We also have sent hampers through social services who recommend various groups and people that may be need of a larger hamper.

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“We want to say thank you to the public, businesses and supermarkets.

It has helped a lot of people because we’ve been able to give extra. There was a lot of Christmas-themed products so we hopefully made their festive period a little bit better.”

Cash was also given to the food bank, something Celia said will come into good use in the months to come.

She said: “The cash donations are really useful because we are very well stocked for now but later in the year we will be short so it will help to make sure we don’t just give people bags with just the basics.”

To help out with the food bank visit www.facebook.com/leylandfoodbank/

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