Food banks in Powys have collected thousands of meals for families in need over the summer months, organisers have said. 

Staff at supermarket chain Tesco, which has branches in Newtown and Llandrindod Wells, say during a special summer food collection, 2,101 meals were donated by customers in Powys as part of a Wales-wide total of 63,692 and UK-wide total of 900,000 meals-worth of food collected for distribution by the Trussell Trust and FareShare.

A report by food bank charity the Trussell Trust released earlier this year showed food banks across Wales provided more than 54,000 meals to children over the last year - one every ten minutes.

The figures represented an astonishing 10% increase in food bank use across the country, as 146,000 emergency food parcels were handed out to people in Wales facing crisis between April 2020 and March 2021.

Parcels provided to children made up 39% of the support provided by food banks in 2020/21, even though children make up only 20% of the UK population.

Emma Revie, Chief Executive at the Trussell Trust said: "Thanks to the incredible compassion and generosity of Tesco customers during the Tesco Summer Food Collection, food banks in our network have been able to offer emergency food parcels to thousands of families in crisis throughout the summer months, while we work in the long term to build a hunger free future.

"We have been truly humbled to see how much people have been willing to give to food banks this summer, as our nationwide network of food banks do all they can to help families meet the extra financial pressures of the holiday period."

New figures released by the Trussell Trust, collected between November 2020 and January 2021, showed that around 7% of people aged 16 or over in England and Wales had used a food bank in the previous year – representing almost three and a half million people.

"We are incredibly grateful to everyone who volunteered and every customer who donated items during this year’s Tesco Summer Food Collection,” said Sarah Germain, Manager at FareShare Cymru.

"It was wonderful to see so many passionate people lending a hand to support.

"The donations we receive through the food collection are vital and will be redistributed by FareShare to charities and community organisations working with people across Wales."