A consignment of Easter Eggs has provided some chocolate cheer for people using a busy Herefordshire foodbank.

The long-established Leominster Foodbank has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people knocking on its doors and as a result Lock Stock felt it was time to lend a hand.

Leominster Foodbank Trustee and volunteer Anne Clarke received the delivery from Lock Stock Area Manager Richard Warner and said: “It’s lovely to be able to offer our foodbank customers some seasonal treats and we’re very grateful to Lock Stock for this generous donation.

“We have seen a big rise in demand since Christmas and since January we have distributed 1,000 food parcels nearly half of them for children.

“We’re in temporary accommodation at the moment, which has made things more difficult and those figures include supermarket vouchers as well as food parcels.

“But there has been a big increase since 2020 and the pandemic which was when we became a charity – previously we were part of Churches Together in Leominster and we still have a good proportion of church members among our 60 volunteers.

“The Food Bank is open on Tuesdays and Fridays but if there’s need in between we can offer emergency food parcels and alongside the food bank we run a food share project with the Co-op which we distribute every evening and we run food share sessions on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“We even run a Money Mentoring scheme to help people with budgeting and to access support because often they don’t know what they’re entitled to and we also refer people in fuel poverty to the appropriate support.

“It was just a table with a few tins when we started but there are a lot of demands on our services so we’re really grateful to a business like Lock Stock for helping us out and providing some welcome treats for Easter.”

Richard Warner said: “We like to support charities and good causes in the areas where we operate and we just thought it would be nice to offer some treats in the form of Easter Eggs to the Leominster Food Bank.

“They do a fantastic job covering a huge area and many people don’t realise that hardship and a shortage of food are a reality for people even in a beautiful area like this.

“We have opened a new storage park just up the road in Brimfield and we like to support the community in the places where we are in business whether that’s charities like the Leominster Food Bank or local schools and community groups.”