A FOOD bank in Hartlepool has fed 4,357 or 1,440 families this year.

Hartlepool Food Bank had also supported 290 people, including 89 children, in the first two-and-a-half weeks of December.

The food bank has been boosted by gardeners and allotment holders in the town who have donated to the Hartlepool council-fun Big Christmas Dinner Challenge which helps feed people on Christmas Day.

The Allotments’ Tenants Focus Group, the food bank and the town’s Waverley Terrace Community Allotment have donated 55 large boxes containing a variety of fresh vegetables,

Kate Ainger, Hartlepool Borough Council environmental projects officer, said: “We invited allotment holders to "pledge some veg" and the response was amazing. We would like to thank everyone who contributed for their invaluable support.

“It is great to know that the Big Christmas Dinner Challenge is really going to make a difference to a significant number of families over the festive season.”

The empty boxes were donated by Fruit Fayre, of Oxford Road, and the contents included potatoes, onions, carrots, leeks, beetroot, swede, sprouts, rosemary, cabbage and marrows. Each box also included an information pack with suggested recipes and advice from the Love Food Hate Waste campaign on how to make the most of the produce.

The allotment sites which contributed to the appeal were Nicholson Field, Thornhill, Throston, Chester Road, Briarfields, Burn Valley, Woodcroft, Summerhill, Haswell, Rossmere and Waverley Terrace.

Staff and volunteers at the Waverley Terrace Community Allotment, which offers opportunities to children and adults with physical and learning disabilities, and people with mental health problems, also helped to collect the donations and did most of the sorting and packing of the produce.