'˜It's been fantastic and really brought us all together...'

The past two weeks have seen wine fairs, beer festivals and an array of cooking classes to honour and educate the produce of the local area.

Organiser Alistair Gibson said: ‘The two weeks have been fantastic.

‘It’s absolutely brilliant that every ticketed event sold out and we’ve definitely brought together the community.’

Crowds gathered in the heart of the town to celebrate the end of the fortnight with a harvest festival with prayers, two school choirs and a food bank mountain.

Alistair added: ‘We have a church service and two local school choirs singing as the schools have been heavily involved with this year’s event.

‘We are collecting food for the Beacon Food Bank as it is important after these two weeks of celebrating food we remember and help those less fortunate than ourselves.’

Two pupils from St James’ CE Primary School went the extra mile towards helping the local food bank.

Brothers Lewis and Ben Druvari filled a jar with their own sweets and charged 20p a guess to their friends at school.

Lewis, nine, said: ‘We raised £32 and then we went to the shops.’

Ben, also nine, added: ‘We managed to buy 41 things from the shop and we have put them on the food bank mountain.’

Headteacher at St James’, Erika Biddlecombe, said: ‘I’m bursting with pride as it was all their own idea and their own sweets.’

As part of food fortnight, the local schools have received educational workshops.

Erika said: ‘We always support the food fortnight and I think it’s important for our children to realise how lucky they are and some families in the area don’t have what they have.’

Alistair hopes the food fortnight will continue next year.

He added: ‘I want to get a wider range of producers in.’