APPEALS are being made to residents in South Gloucestershire for donations to a county-wide food drive in the run up to Christmas.

Launched by the South Gloucestershire Green Party, the drive is seeking donations of food, sanitary products and Christmas treats to foodbanks, including Thornbury, Yate and Chipping Sodbury, Filton, Kingswood and Mangotsfield.

Food collected by volunteers will be pooled and distributed to several food banks across South Gloucestershire on December 15.

To donate, residents can either get in touch with the group to arrange a drop off or can donate directly to the foodbanks. 

Iain Hamilton from the Green Party said: “In our country, the fifth largest economy in the world, around a million people and rising are finding themselves dependent on food banks. We must pressure the Government to protect those “just managing” before millions more require foodbanks just to survive.

“We need to change our mind set before foodbanks are accepted as the norm - they are not. In the meantime, it’s important that food banks continue to have supplies to give out, so please donate whatever you can.”

“The work of the army of volunteers here in South Gloucestershire is incredible. They are helping people who are falling through the safety net of our welfare system through unexpected illness, delays to payments, or even an unexpected bill, and the reality is it could happen to any one of us. We must put aside political differences here and agree that this should not go on.”

For more information on donating, contact Tom Hathway on t_hathway93@hotmail.co.uk