A THREE day collection is taking place to boost donations to a local foodbank.

Mayor of Northallerton, Councillor John Forrest launched the appeal for Hambleton FoodShare at the Tesco store in Northallerton today (Thursday, July 2), where donations had already begun to arrive.

The FoodShare initiative was established by Broadacres Housing Association in a community partnership with local churches and voluntary groups and local councils.

The Northallerton-based service was launched to help people struggling to feed themselves or their families and provides a three-day emergency food parcel to people going through financial crisis who would otherwise go hungry.

Cllr Forrest officially opened the Foodshare in 2013 and says it has now distributed more than 3,000 food parcels. He said the need showed no signs of abating, with increasing referrals to the foodbank for people across the district.

He said: “It’s a valuable service. The aim is to collect as much food as possible, even if it’s one tin of soup or one can of beans – we’re not asking for great bags of shopping from people.

“The generosity of local people is very much apparent in these donations and will enable the foodbank to continue to supply meals for people.”

People can drop-off food donations at Tesco in Northallerton over the next few days, until the end of Saturday (July 4) this week.