A County Durham charity has set up a Halloween pop-up shop this week to help raise money for their foodbank.

Bishop Auckland charity The Angel Trust opened their pop-up Halloween shop on Wednesday (October 26) to help raise money for their foodbank, and other organisations.

As part of this, the charity is selling spooky costumes at £2, as well as other trinkets and decorations for anywhere between 50p to £1.

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The Northern Echo:

Julie Errington, senior fundraiser at The Angel Trust, said: "It's been lovely, we've been quiet and busy in equal measure, but the people coming in have been really lovely.

"Everyone seems really happy that we've got the store, and everyone's really interested in the Christmas store coming as well, so that's nice.

"People are struggling with their day-to-day bills and nobody's really got any spare cash.

"Because our stuff is heavily discounted, people have been able to come and buy stuff they might not have been able to generally buy, so they can have Halloween parties with their families.

"We've seen an increase in service uses [in our foodbank] every week" she added

"It's great that we can help people, but it's a sign of the times."

She said the charity had previously received a large number of Halloween stock as donations and decided to put this to good use for their pop-up store.

Meanwhile, the charity has so far raised over £1,000 and will be open late tonight, tomorrow and on Halloween before closing for a week.

To get in the mood, the shop has been selling costumes, light-up balloons, decorations, bowls, bunting, and even skull-shaped cups.

The money raised will help towards the running costs of The Angel Trust, as well as fund their foodbank and community pantry.

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The Northern Echo:

For their Christmas pop-up shop, Ms Errington told The Northern Echo they expect to be open from mid-November to Christmas Eve.

Later this year, The Angel Trust's Christmas toy appeal will also be running from the pop-up shop, where people donate new toys to be distributed to disadvantaged children in Darlington.

Adding to this, toys will also be donated to children's homes and teenage homeless centres.

Last year, 15,000 toys were donated because of the appeal and the charity hopes to top that this year.

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