FatFace and Havant school join up to make sure nobody goes hungry over the holiday seasonÂ

The Chrunch project has already distributed more than 1,000 food boxes with a staggering 50,000 items donated.

Head teacher at Park Community School, Chris Anders, said: '˜The response from people has been incredible and just shows the level of need. We had people coming in the pouring rain which they simply wouldn't be doing if there wasn't a real necessity.'

The initiative is part of the school's partnership with the FatFace Foundation with proceeds from the new Havant charity shop being invested in local community projects. The school has identified families in need and organised the distribution. In the first week of the project 1,100 boxes were given out.

'˜FatFace spent tens of thousands of pounds on purchasing a whole range of goods. These items have then been used to put together four food box packages. The first two boxes contain non perishable goods such as cereals and tinned food. The third box contains items such as eggs, biscuits and chocolate and the fourth box, which went out in the final days before Christmas, consists of perishable goods such as meat, vegetables, bread and fruit,' said Mr Anders.

The school is also distributing specific baby boxes to help support those families with infants. The festive hampers have already seen 300 jars of coffee, 600 tins of fruit salad, 300 yule logs, 300 boxes of eggs and 1200 boxes of biscuits delivered to families in need.

'˜The children have found this a really exciting project and were all keen to help. All of our Year 7 students have been doing volunteer work at the FatFace distribution centre where they have been involved in putting the parcels together and packaging the hampers,' added Mr Anders.

One recipient said: '˜These boxes have literally saved me this Christmas. If it wasn't for these lovely people my kids would go hungry as my benefits have been cut. Lovely people and great food. Fantastic community spirit, thank you all.'

Another parent added: '˜This is a fantastic scheme which has really helped. It was really good seeing the look on my youngest child's face as I showed her what we had.'

Director of the Fat Face Foundation, Adrienne Heeley, hopes the initiative is the first of many projects to help the local community.

'˜We are delighted to be able to support such a worth while project on our doorstep. We hope that the relationship with the team from Park Community School will continue to go from strength to strength and look forward to making lasting differences in the community in which we have our head office at FatFace,' she said.  

Susan Parish, business and community manager at the school, added: '˜It is heart-warming to see the difference we can make to members of our local community.'