MP offers support for food bank Christmas drive

The Tesco store in North Harbour hosted Portsmouth Foodbank at the weekend as part of their Christmas drive.

On Saturday, city MP Penny Mordaunt joined those helping with the collection.

Volunteers say that this is a very intense time of year for the food banks, and that it’s important to have enough stock in reserve.

Philip Burgess, from Portsmouth, volunteers with the food bank in North End and was helping out with the Tesco food collection.

He said: ‘This is a very busy time of year, a lot of people will be coming through our doors.

‘We’ve got volunteers here all weekend and it has been very good so far.

‘We have loads of stuff in the warehouse as a result of people’s generosity.

‘People are coming along and purchasing a couple of extra items during their shop, then popping it into our trolleys – which is greatly appreciated.’

International development secretary Ms Mordaunt said: ‘I really wanted to say thank you to the food bank teams across Portsmouth, and to Tesco for doing another food collection this year.

‘You just donate one or two extra items, which means we can give food parcels to families across the city who are under additional pressures at Christmas.’