All-day Lewes Food Banks collection takes place on Saturday October 21

On Saturday, Lewes Army Cadet Force and Lewes Chamber of Commerce were welcomed to the ever-growing coalition of collectors. There was even support from ‘a local tree’ aka James Booth in eye-catching fancy dress costume.

Feeding those in Lewes who are dependent on the town's three food banks and community fridge becomes increasingly vital as autumn turns darker and colder, and ingredients for warm meals are needed more than ever.

Despite an entire day of rain, Saturday shoppers gave generously and donated just short of 7,000 items of food and household goods.

However huge this amount, the scale of food poverty was revealed by Landport Food Bank's Debbie Twitchen, upon delivery of their part of the collection.

"The donations are most welcome but I will still have to buy in cereal, pasta sauce, tinned meat and biscuits, as there were not enough of these items to cover our 76 households. We have 15 families with four or more children who visit us now. Numbers are on the rise again,” said Debbie.

Mark Perryman, pioneer of the all-day Lewes Food Bank collections, explains why so many regular and new volunteers keep stepping up each time.

"None of us want to spend our Saturday doing this, but as long as anyone in our community faces the threat of going hungry, we will try to help. This isn’t charity, it’s solidarity."

The next collection takes place on Saturday 16 December, outside Aldi, Tesco and Waitrose. Turn up to find out if a Christmas Tree aka James Booth will be joining in!