RETAIL giant Tesco is urging Clackmannanshire residents to donate generously during the Neighbourhood Food Collection.

The drive – run by the supermarket with partner charities The Trussell Trust and FareShare – aims to provide at least four million meals to people in need this summer as both charities see increased use by families who are struggling to put food on the table over the holiday period.

The collection will take place in the Alloa outlet from today (Wednesday) until Saturday, 2–4 July.

MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh will also be at the store on Friday (3 July) at 12noon.

Store manager Rob McLean said: “It’s fantastic to see local people coming together to build a stronger community. When we ran the Neighbourhood Food Collection in November we were overwhelmed by the generosity of both our customers and our colleagues.” Every week nearly 150,000 people eat a meal that has been provided by FareShare and in 2014 Tesco Alloa donated the equivalent of 4420 meals to the charity during the National Food Collections in July and November.

This is in addition to the permanent collection point where the food gathered goes to help The Gate in Alloa which donated over 35,000 meals to families in need last year.

The food given to FareShare in the National Food collections is also redistributed to the local food bank as well as others in Stirling and the surrounding area.

Lindsay Boswell, CEO of FareShare, said: “Sadly food poverty affects a large number of people across the UK. From homeless hostels to breakfast clubs, women’s refuges to luncheon clubs for older people, these frontline organisations need food more than ever, so we’re thrilled to partner with Tesco on the Neighbourhood Food Collection again this year.

“Our charity partners who cater for families and children have increased needs over the school holidays, placing resources under greater pressure as the need to continue to provide for our other charity members doesn’t decrease. This campaign enables us all to help in a simple, practical way, as every item of food donated will make a difference to vulnerable people in our community.” In Tesco’s 800 superstore and extra stores the collection will be launched with a colleague treasure hunt.

This will see Tesco colleagues and other members of the community use clues to search the store for some of the food items that the charities need most.

This is a fun way to engage customers and colleagues about the cause and to officially launch the collection.

All the food ‘found’ in the treasure hunt will be donated to the in-store collection.

Contact your local superstore or extra for details about when this will take place.