A CHARITY is celebrating after raising over £10,000 to help feed residents struggling to make ends meet.

The People’s Takeaway will be set up at East Durham Trust’s Peterlee premises with money raised from the Crowdfunding appeal and matched by Comic Relief.

The volunteer-led project will support families in crisis by providing them with hot meals for free.

A working kitchen is being established with local people preparing and delivering food to people.

Malcolm Fallow, the trust’s chief executive, said: “The response in such a short space of time has been astonishing.

“We have had a large and small donations from near and far. Clearly there are people out there who care about people less well off than themselves.”

The proposed project received national profile recently when Easington MP Grahame Morris raised the campaign in the House of Commons during a debate on the government’s controversial Universal Credit initiative.

The campaign also got support from Dave Johns, star of the award-winning movie I Daniel Blake.

Mr Fallow added: “We know it’s a sad state of affairs when people need support like this but for the moment we are simply celebrating this amazing example of generosity. Donations will genuinely support people in need.”