DURING the recession, food banks have sprung up around the county to help those most in need.

All it takes is for one person in a family to be made redundant and a whole household can soon be on the breadline.

That’s where the Oxford Food Bank can step in, to allocate food in an orderly way, depending on need.

The food bank’s services are now in such great demand that it has moved to bigger premises and is backed by supermarkets in the area and the charitable trust of the Oxford Mail’s parent company, Gannett.

In an ideal world, no-one would need food banks but, when times are hard, they can make a big difference.

And it makes perfect sense to make good use of thousands of pounds’ worth of food that would otherwise go to waste as it is past its sell-by date but within its use-by date.

Projects like the Oxford Food Bank are a very good cause and we hope supermarket giants like Sainsbury’s and Tesco continue to support it.

In due course, as the economy recovers, the services of food banks may be required less and less, but until we turn a corner it is handy to have volunteers doing such a great job.