Donations are needed to replenish stocks of a Family Food Bank (FFB) after a busy few months.

The service was launched at Seashells Children and Families Centre in Sheerness in 2012 in response to the 350 job losses at Thamesteel.

Generous Islanders regularly give food so volunteers can make up boxes to be dished out to people in need who have been referred by professionals.

There are now 23 distribution centres in Kent which follow the model launched here on Sheppey and they distribute about 50 parcels a month to families.

FFB co-ordinator at Seashells Chris Norman said there wasn’t a spike in demand over the festive period because people tended to plan in advance.

“People realise there’s a crisis coming up so they seek help beforehand,” he said.

“The level of demand for our services was exactly what we would expect and we issued the same sort of numbers in December as we did before.

“Because of the kind donations of local people, we were able to add some Christmas elements into the boxes.”

If you can help by donating any non-perishable goods such as tinned food, pasta and packet items, they can be dropped of at Seashells, centre in Leysdown and Ladybird children’s centre in Queenborough.

To find out more, go to www.familyfoodbank.org.uk