Ribble Valley's Tesco shoppers urged to back crucial Christmas food collection

The Ribble Valley Foodbank will be holding its annual Christmas Food Collection at Tesco supermarket in Duck Street from this Thursday (November 19th) to Saturday 21st and there are 13 long-life food items that charity have said would be really appreciated.

This year's list of much-needed items is: Christmas puddings, tins of custard, Christmas cakes, festive biscuits, savoury biscuits/breadsticks, chocolate, selection boxes, tubes of sweets, Pringles/crisps, Mince pies, Christmas crackers, tinned ham, tinned salmon.

Food donated in store is taken directly to the foodbank, where it is sorted and used to create pre-Christmas emergency food parcels for people in crisis who are referred to the foodbank by a variety of agencies.

Jane Chitnis, Ribble Valley Foodbank Manager, said “Unsurprisingly, many local people have had to call on the foodbank for help this year, and since April we have fed well over twice as many people as we did in the same period last year.

"Despite the difficult circumstances, the kind people of the Ribble Valley have continued to donate generously, and we hope that our Christmas appeal will bring in plenty of Christmas treats to help make this festive season special for local people in need.

"Usually, our volunteers welcome shoppers to Tesco and offer them a copy of our shopping list, but that isn’t possible this year because of Covid-19. Our Christmas wish list will be displayed in the store, and Tesco will generously top up by 20% any donations made, so please remember us when you are doing your shopping!"

She added: "If anyone is unable to donate at Tesco, they could make a financial donation to enable us to buy Christmas food to distribute. You can donate via our website – www.ribblevalley.foodbank.org.uk - or you can contact us on [email protected] or 07849 534431.Thank you, on behalf of the foodbank and our clients.”