MORE than 20,000 meals have been donated by Dorset shoppers in the space of just three days.

Customers at Tesco stores in the county donated 22,441 meals between June 30 and July 2 - as part of a total of 1.3million meals nationwide.

Long-life food items were donated during Tesco’s ‘Food Collection’ campaign and have been shared with food banks in the Trussell Trust network. Frontline charities were also supported in partnership with FareShare.

As well as donating meals and produce over £328,000 was raised when customers ‘rounded-up’ the cost of their shopping at checkouts.

Claire de Silva, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “We’re so grateful to our generous customers who kindly do what they can to help their local food banks and charities during our food collection. We hope our year-round donation points, now across our smaller convenience stores too, will provide more ways for people to help by giving if they can”.

Lindsay Boswell, CEO of FareShare, thanked shoppers in Dorset for their support. He said: “The UK is currently facing a cost-of-living increase which is affecting more and more people,”

“FareShare is doing all it can to support charities up and down the UK with food so that they can provide vital services to people facing food insecurity during the summer holidays.

“We are immensely grateful to Tesco customers for their generous food and financial donations during the Summer Food Collection. The support we receive from Tesco and its customers will enable FareShare to continue our support of children and families in Dorset during the summer and beyond.”

Emma Revie, Chief Executive at the Trussell Trust, added: “The incredible generosity of Tesco customers during the Summer Food Collection will play a vital role in helping food banks across Dorset provide emergency food and support to people facing hardship during this challenging period.

We are grateful to everyone who was able to donate and we thank you for your continued support while we work in the long term to build a future without the need for food banks."

To further help the charities cope with increasing need for food, Tesco has expanded its network of permanent food collection points to all stores, all year round, so shoppers can continue to help local food banks and charities get the food they need.