OVER 1,500 meals have been donated to help families in crisis thanks to Tesco shoppers in Southampton.

As part of a UK-wide effort by the super market giant, 900,000 meals have been donated in total, with 1,510 of those coming from stores in Southampton.

The meals collected as part of the summer Tesco Food Collection will now be distributed by the Trussell Trust and FareShare in emergency food parcels being sent to families in crisis.

Tesco has also topped up all the customer donations with an extra 20% in cash to help the charities in their work.

Tesco’s Head of Community, Claire De Silva, said: “Our customers in Southampton have shown amazing support once again, and we will continue to work closely with both charities to help them in the crucial work they do across the UK.”

Both charities have now praised all those who donated and volunteered during the collection, saying they had been "humbled by the generosity" which many had shown.

Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive at FareShare, said: “We are incredibly grateful to everyone who volunteered and every customer who donated items during this year’s Tesco Summer Food Collection. It was wonderful to see so many passionate people lending a hand to support."

The summer collection was held in addition to the annual pre-Christmas Tesco Food Collection which the supermarket holds to support the two charities.

Emma Revie, Chief Executive at the Trussell Trust said: “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.”