Generous Portadown customers support our collection drive for Craigavon Area Foodbank

A big thank you to all the generous customers at our Portadown store who've been supporting our collection drive for Craigavon Area Foodbank.

With school holidays now underway, food bank referrals for children rise steeply as they lose access to free school meals – with some families struggling to manage costs.

We've set up dedicated collection points for the food bank – and donations will go to food bank's two main centres in Lurgan and Portadown.

Between 1st July 2018 and 30th June 2019, the food bank supported a total of 3,605 local people in crisis in the Craigavon area.

Martin Stevenson from the food bank said: "The support of Asda and other local groups, such as churches and schools, has been vital in making sure we have enough food for every local person referred to the food bank.

"We are very grateful for the generosity of people who donate food across the area. We also try to help tackle the underlying causes of poverty in our community and signpost people to local services that address those issues to help prevent the need for another food bank referral."

The food bank is a member of the Trussell Trust network and the initiative is part of Asda's three-year Fight Hunger Create Change programme, which is donating £20 million over three years to the Trussell Trust and FareShare to create long-term positive change to poverty.

Elaine Livingstone, the store's community champion, works closely with the food bank to ensure they receive donations of the items that make the most difference.

She said: “Our customers and colleagues are always very generous, and we’re really pleased to be getting behind the Asda Fight Hunger Create Change campaign, which will make a difference on a very local level as well as on bigger scale across the country.

“We always have food collection points in store, but over the next few weeks we’re really trying to increase the level of donations as we go into the summer holidays, when sadly food bank referrals do tend to increase.”

Find out more about the Asda Fight Hunger Create Change initiative here.