WOKING Foodbank will receive at least £950 thanks to the generosity of Southern Co-op members, a timely boost as it begins trials of an evening distribution session this week.

Co-op members’ donations of food and finance helped to raise more than £75,000 to assist food banks, with the donations shared between 75 food banks.

“This money will be used to purchase fresh fruit, cheese and eggs for our food banks," said Alison Buckland, the project co-ordinator.  “We collect as much supermarket waste fresh food as possible, to give out alongside our long-life items, but also purchase supplementary items ourselves.

“Our fresh supplies cost about £150 per week. Cheese and eggs are a good source of protein that do not need much in the way of heating, saving on fuel bills.

“We are just about to trial a six-week evening distribution session from this Thursday, until 6 April, predominately aimed at people working nine to five.  

“The session will run on Thursday evenings between 5.30 and 7.30 at The Lighthouse in Woking town centre, and  will become permanent if it is used by working people.

“As always, visitors will need to be referred via front-line care professionals but we welcome enquiries from anyone needing help and will point those without a referral in the right direction for further support.”

Other food banks in Surrey who will benefit from the Co-op scheme include those in Farnham, Chertsey, Reigate and the North Guildford Food Bank.

More than £48,000 was raised by customers swiping their membership cards as Southern Co-op has pledged to donate 2p per qualifying transaction.

Through the co-operative's Share of the Profits scheme 2021-22, a further £22,570 was donated by members. Colleagues donated the remaining funds from a one-off support payment.

Between February and December last year, 17,566kg (about 17.5 tonnes) of goods were donated to food banks by customers and members. In December, £40,000 worth of gift cards was also shared by Southern Co-op to food banks across the south.

Holly Bramble, Southern Co-op's community lead, said: "It makes me incredibly proud when I see how much money and food our customers have enabled us to donate to food banks.

"We know times are tough, so we want to encourage our customers to keep swiping their membership cards. We'd also like to thank all the people behind the scenes at these food banks who make the impossible possible."

Southern Co-op is a regional, independent co-operative operating more than 300 branches across the south of England. It is owned by more than 165,000 members, has an annual turnover of £500million and employs more than 4,000 staff.