A big thank you for supporting our Fight Hunger Create Change collection drive

We've been overwhelmed by the generosity of our colleagues and customers who've been supporting our food bank collection drive as part of the Asda Fight Hunger Create Change programme.

Volunteers at the collection points in more than 300 of our larger stores say they were inundated with much-needed donations of food and essential items.

The collection drive formed part of our three-year programme, which is donating £20 million to food charities FareShare and The Trussell Trust to provide a million people with the food and support they need to help them out of the situation they are in. It was timed to coincide with the increased demand for food banks ahead of the summer holidays, when research shows that referrals increase dramatically.

Food banks have been quick to thank our generous customers and colleagues for their support. Here are some of the messages they've been posting on social media:

The team at Eastern Valley Foodbank couldn't thank the generous customers and colleagues at our Cwmbran store enough. They commented on Facebook to say: "Thank you to everyone who has donated food. In total we collected 51 crates full of food and met some very lovely people. Remember we have a collection trolley permanently in Asda so if you missed us you will be able to donate when ever is convenient for you."

Caroline, manager of the King's Foodbank, thanked everyone from Asda Darlington on Facebook, saying: "We feel extremely blessed by all the volunteers who give their time freely to serve others. They give above and beyond all that they are called to do. Volunteers are not paid ....not because they are worthless but because they are priceless."

Anne-Marie Shelbourne, the community champion at our Leckwith Road store in Cardiff, said: "Our customers are amazing! This photo is from the first hour of the food drive for Cardiff Foodbank and one trolley was already filled! We would like to thank them all."

Our community champions work closely with their local food banks, organising permanent collection points for them, helping when they need specific items, building awareness and volunteering their time.

Sinead Hinch from our Newark store tweeted to thank customers for their support – and to put the scale of their donations in perspective:

Liz McCreery, the community champion at our Breck Road store, said she was overwhelmed by the support the collection drive for North Liverpool Foodbank received.

Liz said: "The generosity of donations and kind words from our customers and colleagues towards our Fight Hunger Create Change programme left me speechless.

"Thank you everyone so much. There were some very kindhearted children also asking their parents could they donate and our colleagues took the shopping list of most need items to donate as well. Coming into thesummer holidays, there is sadly always more need for this service in our community. What a worthwhile event."

Her views were echoed by June Thurston from Asda Hereford who tweeted to thank customers for their support and said: "We were amazed at the generosity of our customers and would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for supporting us."

Amanda Clegg, the community champion at our Halifax store, shared these photos from the store's collection drive and said: "An awesome day talking to our customers about Fight Hunger Create Change. Shoppers from all ages popped some extra items in their shop today. Even little shoppers Phoebe and Gilligan popped in some tins of spaghetti for the children!"

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Our partnership, which is funded in part by sales of our Bags for Life, is enabling FareShare and The Trussell Trust to develop their infrastructure and expand their teams so they can transport and store more fresh food, work with more local food charities and address the longer-term issues causing peole to turn to them for help.

You can read more about the difference our investment is making to their work here.