ALMOST 10,000 meals have been donated by Gwent shoppers to help charities feed people over Christmas and during the winter months.

Tesco received 9,459 meals worth of food from Gwent shoppers, with around half of these donated in Newport.

Shoppers in Newport donated 4,267 meals worth of food, while 3,3286 were donated in Caerphilly, along with 1,413 in Chepstow and 493 in Ebbw Vale.

Across Wales, 89,564 meals worth of food was donated out of a total of 1.5 million across the UK.

The collection ran from November 18-20 in all Tesco stores and customers were asked to donate long-life food.

The donations help the Trussell Trust’s foodbanks across the UK to provide emergency parcels and charities through FareShare. Tesco has also provided a 20 per cent cash donation to both Trussell Trust and FareShare.

FareShare Cymru CEO, Sarah Germain, said: “The food collection is so important to FareShare Cymru because donations of long-life items means we are able to complement the fresh food that we receive year-round from Tesco with staples like rice, tinned vegetables and tea and coffee.

“Thank you to every single Tesco customer in South Wales that donated to the food collection this year – your generous donations will help us to continue supporting local charities and community groups that are helping to feed people in need this winter.”

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Cleide Correia, project manager at the Merthyr Cynon Foodbank, said: “Throughout 2021, communities across the UK have stepped in to provide vital support to people at food banks, left without enough money for the essentials.

“This emergency lifeline is only possible due to the incredible compassion and generosity of Tesco customers, including those in South Wales, during the Tesco Food Collection.

“Right now, people near you are making impossible decisions between staying warm or buying food as food banks in our network face providing 7,000 emergency food parcels to people in crisis every day this month.

“It’s not right that any of us are forced to a charity for the essentials, but we continue to be truly humbled by how much people are willing to give and so we thank you for your continued support while we work in the long term to build a future without the need for food banks.”

Claire de Silva, head of community at Tesco thanked all those who took part. She said: “At this time more than ever, we are hugely grateful for the support of all our customers in South Wales who have donated in store for making this the biggest collection of long-life food in our stores since the start of the pandemic. We know this will make a really significant difference to local people this winter.”