Bedford's Foodbank Appeal raises staggering £14k

Foodbank trustee Simon Danes said: “The appeal was called The Great Bedford Foodbank £7,433 Christmas Challenge.

"£7,433 was the target because we fed 74,33 people in one year - so we were hoping to raise the same number of pounds as the number of people we helped. The response from local businesses and people was just terrific. We’re all amazed at the total."

He added: “We had some wonderful support from MD&H Insurance, St James’s Place Wealth Management, Sharnbrook Learning for Pleasure, Compass Land and Property, and Aeromark. We did a number of street collections in the six days leading up to Christmas and, amazingly, these raised over £5,000. The people of Bedford have been very generous and we’d like to thank them sincerely for their kindness. We’re going to be very busy in 2020 and every penny people gave us will help us enormously in our work.”

Bedford Foodbank provides food parcels to 600 people every month; around 200 of them are children.

If you would like to help, please drop off non-perishable food donations in the collecting bins in the main Sainsburys, Tescos and Morrisons, or at the Foodbank warehouse at 71 Murdock Road on weekday mornings.

To donate money, the Just Giving page for the Christmas Appeal is still open and you can find it at here